Most of the time we have been contacting each other through e-mails, from the time i first came to Russia while he was still in Malaysia, right after he returned back to Malaysia after a year in Australia. He told me that he wanted to keep all of those old emails as they were precious to him, like a diary of sorts. We recalled back the time when he was so much into this girl, that he went as far as writing an instrumental song for her on the guitar. He's a wonderful guitarist with a liking for jazz and classical music. He e-mailed me that song and i liked it very much. Eventually, he never got the girl.
Long gone are the days when letters were the only mode of long distance communication, replaced by more modern ways of e-mailing and facebooking. Collecting stamps was once considered a noble hobby, i don't know whether the hobby still exists or not. My sister used to collect stamps.
I read Hamka's 'Tenggelamnya Kapal Van der Wijck' last summer while i was down with influenza like illness, and the bulk of the novel are letters written between two lovers. And i thought there were elements of Hamka's style in Habiburrahman's writings. I wonder whether there are still people who are stuck in that period of time in this modern era just for the sake of reviving tradition. Are there still people writing letters, besides those official ones, love letters to be precise? Handwritten, the warmth of a sheet of paper folded into an envelope, you actually have that emotional substance in it.
My mom told me that she used to write letters home while she was at a boarding school in Johor, and would intentionally cry and let the tears shed on those letters so that they will have that drying effect afterwards. My mom was that creative, but she missed home very much.
I might not have experienced that, but i am sure i will still keep on replying e-mails to this friend of mine. Maybe i am just a backward kind of guy, but i, too, enjoy writing and reading lengthy e-mails.
'I love emails. Thank you whoever created them for allowing me to preserve my memories.'
4 comments:
we see changes every day, but the classic way of doing things has advantage in having 'that certain kind of feel', maybe because it involves personal touch or maybe just because it reminds of the past.
i wonder, in primary school we were taught to write ayahanda, bonda, kakanda - who writes that today r?
oh man, really love tenggelamnya kapal van der wijck, a book i accidentally found in junior's closet during inspection and then borrowed it. the first book written by hamka which i read.
Nobody picks up a pen and write a letter when he doesn't need to address anything. So i bet those people who wrote letters in the past had important things to write, thus that emotional attachment glues together with each letter.
I have that book in my room right now. Matpih asked me to bring it to Volgo last summer.
awwwww you read habiburrahman.
i didn't read it cik perempuan beremosi tinggi. I was surprised to find out why he was so famous and then my sister recommended reading Hamka instead of Habiburrahman.
So where's your blog.i've been wanting to read your writings.
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