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TANGENTS

Dear Letter

BY IHTISHAM KABIR
Dear Letter,
So it has come to this. You have been part and parcel of civilisation for centuries. But today you have fallen, making way for email, SMS, cellphones and FaceBook.
You faithfully served so many for so long: separated families, kings and generals, couples in love, leaders and scientists, writers and poets...
When I left home at sixteen to study abroad, you were the thread connecting me to my family: a salve for my mother's raw pain and my father's worries about my well-being. You were my umbilical cord to the world I had left behind, my brother, sister, friends, relatives and teachers.
During history, your moments of glory often came from romantic couples. The passion in the letters between medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard, the emperor Napoleon and his sweetheart Josephine, and Beethoven and his Immortal Beloved has ignited countless souls.
Sometimes you made us laugh. When the Soviets were patronising Vietnam, the Vietnamese sent this letter to Moscow: "Food short. Send money.” The Soviets, in trouble themselves, replied: “Tighten belt.” The ever resourceful Vietnamese shot back:"Send belt.”
Occasionally you shaped history. The letter of ultimatum from Austria to Serbia in 1914 resulted in the calamitous First World War. Letters of historical figures such as Cicero, Henry VIII, Lincoln, and others tell us much about their times.
You helped science advance. Newton and Leibniz corresponded regularly by letter and their interactions culminated with the invention of the calculus. A long controversy followed over who should get credit for it. Today both are recognised. Closer to home, Satyen Bose's now-legendary letter convinced Einstein to translate Bose's paper for publication in Zeitschrift fur Physik.
The boson and Bose-Einstein Statistics followed.
In the able hands of Jawaharlal Nehru, you became a tool of parenting. Being forced to spend much time away from his daughter, Nehru encapsulated his wisdom and sense of history into thirty magnificent letters to his daughter Indira, helping mould her youthful intellect.
Tagore's letter to the young Syed Mujtaba Ali inviting him to study at Shantiniketan electrified and inspired this great Bengali litterateur. One of Ali's many books was a collection called Koto Na Osru Joi (Oh So Many Tears), comprised of letters sent home by soldiers during the Second World War.
You were also the source of unspeakable grief to many. For example, during the Vietnam War, American families with sons in the battlefield dreaded receiving Army letters that started with “We regret to inform you..."
Your style and content have changed with time and place. Medieval letters were written before punctuation symbols existed. Today they look like one long stream of consciousness. In modern English, recipients were usually addressed as "Dear.” In Bangla, however, we wrote “Dear” only to juniors, never to elders. My grandmother's letters to her grandchildren were coated with affection: "With blessings I start this...” Bose addressed Einstein as “Respected Master."
Wretched was the Dear John Letter that Second World War soldiers sometimes received from their sweetheart or wife at home. “Dear John, I have found someone else...”
How would that read in today's SMS? “C U NEVR?"
In Appreciation, A Fan.
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