Of penpals, letters and the Internet...
When I was a child and learned about the way the sun illuminated one half of this world while the moon put to sleep the other half, the idea fascinated me endlessly. Often, in my geography class, I would imagine another girl;as old as me going to sleep at the other end of the world while I sat in class,studying,and I would wonder about this nameless,faceless girl and her life, her friends. I would wish to be friends with a girl like that, whose life was so different from the one I knew.
One fine day, in the school library, I chanced upon this English version of a Russian magazine called,"Misha",and my joy knew no bounds when I discovered the names and addresses of various boys and girls, most of them Russian, all or rather,most of them, as old as me and all of them wanted to be pen pals with somebody. At that stage of my life, Russia held a special place in my heart and all because of a little Russian boy called Dennis - not of the 'Dennis, the menace' fame, but a boy who entered my life through a book,'The Adventures of Dennis', which was a birthday gift from a dear cousin. The stories were all set in Russia and I loved that book. But, I digress.
When I read the list of the boys and girls who wanted to be pen pals, I immediately selected the name I liked the most [I think, it was a girl] and I started writing to her. I am not sure whether I posted that letter or not or whether I got a reply, but yes, 'Misha' became one of my favourite magazines and all because, reading it, made me feel closer to my childhood hero, 'Dennis', and it gave me a peek into the lifestyle of children who lived in a world that was far removed from my own.
After all these years, the magazine is no longer published and my childhood is long gone, but that insatiable curiosity about people from other races and cultures is still there. This curiosity manifests itself in the endless questions that I ask my sister about her Japanese teacher and how she finds teaching Japanese to Indians and living here in India. It manifests itself in the questions that I ask Indians living abroad and people from other cultures whom I have met - all thanks to the power of the Internet. But more than my questions being answered, I feel a sense of wonder and a special joy that geography and distance may separate all these people I know, and yet I can still interact and communicate with them and that joy when I receive a letter or a gift from that land so far away - priceless!!
Come to think of it, after all these years, my wish of knowing that girl at the other end of the world did get fulfilled and how!! :)
Note:-This string of thought was started from bomboy's post here