Conducting activities with students is as much fun as a teacher as it is for the students. And when you conceptualize an activity that is in the domain close to your soul, the excitation is at another level. Recently had such an experience.
Those, who know me from
childhood or even from college days, would identify me with very long personal
letter-writing … on an average 6-8 pages long with the longest being of 27
pages (Soon after I getting introduced to this practice of writing letters
post-card and inland letters were never sufficient for me). Sharing n
expression through such hand-written personal letters was an integral part of
my personality and practice till my mom was there. (After that life happened to
me and thereafter there had been never the time n peace to spare for this
luxury.) Writing letters to my near and dear ones … grand-parents, brother, cousins,
uncles-aunts, friends, friends’ parents, at times teachers and students … was a
comforting, meditative, reflective process for me … absolutely therapeutical. Quite
often it used to be like writing a diary. The treasure of all those old letters
with me even today is priceless. My friends used to tease me that the postman
was my boy-friend. (like this there were many anecdotes and jokes about me and
my letter-writing, but shall talk about that on some other day).
In the era of mobile there is overall loss of getting connected with near n
dear ones through writing letters … more so handwritten letters. The students
at hostel as it is find it little stressful to be away from parents, home.
While hostelites on Juhu hostel of SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai do use
mobile and video calls to remain connected with people back home, noone uses
the option of ‘writing letters’ to remain connected with the parents and near
and dear ones. When checked it was noted that almost 60% of the hostelites had
never written a letter to anyone in their life. Amongst those, who had ever
written a letter, 50% of hostelites had never used Indian post office
stationery for writing letters. The situation with students of Dept of
Educational Technology was no way different. Especially with my love for
writing letters it was thought that how wonderful it would be if the students
could be given an experience to get connected with their near and dear ones
through letter-writing and that too using Indian post -office stationery like
inland letters. Sept 1st is celebrated as the "World Letter-writing
Day". Hence the week prior to that (the last week of August) was dedicated
for this activity. All the hostelites as well as students and staff of Dept of
Educational Technology were given one inland letter each. (The challenge
experienced in procuring so many inland letters is worth listening to … We
needed roughly 200 inland letters. When a staff member was sent to nearby
post-office, they had hardly 20. It just shows how rare this practice has
become. So the person went to a bigger post office and got the required
quantity.)
Since many did not use inland letter ever, the orientation was also needed for
this. An orientation was given on how to fold the inland letter, what care to be
taken while folding, where to put the sender’s and receiver’s addresses, not to
insert, stick or print anything on the inland letter, etc. Students had
questions like what to write, how to procure the address of the receiver (in
digital era, when they are used to email addresses, it was not surprising not
to have postal address). So it was brainstormed what all could be written …. Sharing
their hearts out … happiness, excitement of new city and new friends,
anxieties, worries, life at hostel or in new dept or in Mumbai overall,
memories with that person, their dreams, some reflections of some experiences, perceptions,
wishes for the person, occasional philosophical thoughts, some concerns/ hopes
about that person, about their latest creative processes in their hobbies / social
initiatives …. This of course not being an end of the list. It is all about
merely getting connected and expressing oneself in the secluded zone of
oneself, that person/s and one’s emotions and thoughts. This was an unexpected
activity for the students. They looked curious and enthusiastic. As a hostel-in-charge
and as a teacher I was super-excited about it.
Roughly 114 students from
Juhu hostel wrote 135 letters to their near and dear ones (This indicates that
some students wrote more than one letters). All the students and staff members
of Dept of Educational Technology also wrote letters to their near and dear
ones (Thanks to the HOD, Prof (Dr) Jayashree Shinde, for the permission to conduct this activity in the department). It was so satisfying to see that entire collection of so many inland
letters! All the letters were posted collectively in the post office. When
asked later the students told that they wrote mainly to parents, grand-parents
and siblings. A few had written to their friends and teachers. The feedback the
students have given on how the experience was is so precious! Many found
initially a block what to write and how to express, but when they got into
writing, the flow was set. The experience was emotional for some. But overall,
they were happy about it. A couple of students from hostel did not participate.
When about the reasons they said that they found it awkward to express
themselves through writing. While is completely understandable, I need to have personal
dialogues with such students.
I indeed hope that they
continue with this practice of letter-writing, though occasionally, even in future.
