Letter-writing with students

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.

   

Was very happy that the gen-zees could go into that peaceful, soothing and comforting, zen-zone due to this letter-writing. The students got an experience of the yester-year mode of communication. This was a mentally relaxing activity for them … a step towards their mental health. A (hidden) message was also that financially it does not dig hole in one’s pocket to get connected with people close to you through letters. It just needs that urge to take out time.  

 

I indeed hope that they continue with this practice of letter-writing, though occasionally, even in future.