Love Letters

So I am having one of those sleepless nights and then my thoughts wandered far and wide. As I let my thoughts wander, I rolled back into my school days. That, also reminded me that I have a blog and I haven't updated anything for quite a while. And here I am sitting infront of my laptop trying to put my thoughts into words. Ah! the school days. Those days were the most carefree days, GOSH! Of course apart from those stressful days of exams and little scoldings and beatings from the teachers, those were the finest days. Following the regular schedule on time, going to school, coming back and writing our homework was all we had to worry about. Compared to the present day of my life, where worries weigh more than anything, those worries were insignificant.

Curiosity is always associated with kids and kids we were. Even with the boundary set for us as students, we would discretely cross that boundary finding some sort of satisfaction and happiness on the other end. Experimenting, we were in the process of discovering 'things'. Some tried smoking, some tired sniffing correcting fluid and some tried chewing tobacco, while the others tried learning the values of life, education, teachers, parents, friendship and not to forget LOVE! Starting of the school used to be the most exciting days. The students had one of their ears and eyes dedicated to the newcomers. Unless the newcomer was a jerk or a drama queen, which of course none of us would know in the beginning, everyone would rush to befriend them. The dominant ones used to 'book' the beautiful newcomer but more than often, they ended up being friend-zoned. 

Photo courtesy: Google

And there were those Saturdays when people used wear their best gho and kira to school. The girls tried their best to match the colours of their tego, wonju and kira. Reflecting upon it, I guess we looked like caterpillars when we dressed in green and like some bug when we dressed in red. The social work time used to be interaction time, not just among classmates but also between the juniors and the seniors.

Almost ninety nine percent of the love stories in school used be love on first sights. The student who liked the other shied away from him or her and escaped every little confrontations. Talking in person with that person was never an option. That is when 'love letters' came to the rescue of the ones struck with Cupid's arrows. With boys often being the ones writing the first love letter of 'proposal', girls were spared the humiliation of rejection. The closest friend of the girl or the boy was one delivering the letters, often called the 'messenger'. Though the boy had written the letter, almost forty percent of the chances for beginning of the relationship depended on the messenger. The boy always used to be in a rush to know the response. Sometimes the girl did not even accept the letter, some threatened to report the letter to a teacher if the boy did not stop writing letters to her. The others would read it and say no and yet some took the trouble to write a letter to explain why they can't accept his 'love', simultaneously friend-zoning him.

If the girl also liked the guy, she wrote back a letter of acceptance or just told the messenger that she likes him too. Then, the letters carrying the unspoken words of love were exchanged between the lovebirds; inside notebooks and textbooks or desks. From then on their lives revolved around it. Letters were often addressed to, "My nearest and dearest" and some made use of the lesson taught in the class by using, "Apple of my eyes". Some wrote pages and some wrote a few lines. Often ending with, "Yours forever" or "Yours eternally" and a side note read "I will love you forever" and "Reply as soon as possible".  Extreme care was taken of those letters. If a teacher came across one of those, both the students landed up in huge trouble, from being thrashed to the extent of informing the parents, which also ended up with another session of thrashings. Naturally 'forever' vanished after such thrashing sessions.

I suppose writing love letters helped them improve their language, especially the ones who wrote pages of those. But the ones who were bad in language always bugged the ones good in it to write their love letters. And same was the position of the ones who had bad hand writing. However 'forever' and 'eternally' ended when the school closed or when the students transferred to another school, with most of the once lovers hating on each-other and not even in terms of talking. Those were also the best days to choose bitter enemies; as bitter as divorced couples who had fought over the custody of their child.

I hope those couples later realized that they were wrong and started talking again when they grew old enough to see through their mistakes.

Cell phones have taken over love letters now. One can barely see words of love written on a neatly folded paper these days and this has also lessened the risk of getting caught and the thrashing sessions.