"Didi, come here...See this...You've got mail!"
Mamma walked in with an envelope in her hands which was addressed to me.It was a letter from a girl in Coorg. She had found my address in Tinkle, a children's magazine which I used to read voraciously & also contribute sometimes & now she wanted to be my pen-friend. Her letter seemed pretty interesting. She had written about herself, her hobbies, things she likes doing, the kind of person she is. She was studying in class tenth at a boarding school inMadikeri . Two years senior to me, I was studying in the eighth then. I did not know what pen-pals were. The entire idea of writing letters to some stranger & making friendship sounded bizarre to me. But my parents were quite excited for me. They thought I should reply to this girl & accept her friendship. "You'll get a chance to know a different culture. Trust me, it will be fun!" were their words. So I thought of giving it a try.
I still remember, my first letter to my newly found pen-friend was a very precise letter, nothing too elaborate, unlike hers. I was a very shy kid in my growing up days & that probably explains the reason for my behaviour. It was hardly a week since I had posted my reply to her & I got another letter from her. This time, it was about her life in hostel, living with room-mates & all the fun they would have. I enjoyed reading her letters as time passed by & it didn't take much time for me until I got very fond of this new friend of mine, someone whom I had never seen or met. The friendship bond grew. We used to write to each other about every small thing in our lives. I would wait eagerly for the postman everyday to check if I had a mail from her. After a few months, we exchanged photographs of each other and we would always make plans of meeting up some day, but that never happened. Both of us got busy in our academics.
2001:
She finished her 12th from Coorg & joined a Dental College in Mangalore. I took up Engineering in Goa itself. We had managed to keep in touch through all these years. But professional courses were very demanding. Classes, Practicals, Assignments took most of our times & the regular letters became 'not so regular'. We had just entered the new millennium & everyone was smitten by the dot com revolution. We graduated from hand-written letters to computerized emails! No worries of lost letters. No headaches of buying stamps, envelopes, stationary. No need to drop the letters in the post-office. Email was quick & free. Just press the Send button & your mail delivery is done! For the first few months, we both very eagerly sent emails to each other. But after some time, we realized that emails missed the personal 'touch' that hand-written letters carried with them. When I would read a letter from her in her very own hand-writing, I would feel as if she was talking to me in person. Unfortunately,a type-written email could not match up to it. Since the emails were so quick in delivery, there would be nothing left to discuss & it eventually started getting boring. We did not even realize when the emails suddenly stopped. "We are busy in our personal lives", that was our excuse.
2003:
I had just finished my 3rd year of engineering. We were exhausted after answering the tough exams & we badly needed a break. The college authorities never took any responsibilities of organizing tours or outings. One of our batch mates suggested the idea of a short out-station trip. I was excited the moment I heard the idea. I was always excited at every idea of an outing. But the headcount of interested folks revealed only 9 takers. That was a little disappointing turnover but we still decided to go ahead with the original plan. Now the discussions began about the place to visit. We needed a place,not too far from Goa coz we just had 5 days to wind up the tour. I don't remember who suggested Coorg & Coorg it was, unanimously everyone Else's decision too. The thought of my pen-friend crossed my mind but then it had been quite some time since we had written to each other so I discarded even the slight chances of us meeting up. I started packing for my trip.
An overnight bus journey to Mangalore & a local bus ride of five hours from there & we were in the most beautiful district of Karnataka-Kodagu. We were going to stay at Madikeri. We checked into our hotels, freshened up & did not realize when the day was almost over. Some of us had gathered in a room trying to chalk out the plan for the next few days. I did not have any particular thing to do. I was just loitering around in the hotel lobby, enjoying the cool breeze. Just then, my pen-pal's thought crossed my mind. "I am inCoorg , her hometown. I should try to at least contact her." But I did not have her contact number, nor her postal address. Just then, my eyes went on the telephone directory kept at the reception counter. I tried to recollect the address one last time. All I could remember was her father's name & her city- 'Ponnampet- South Coorg'. I started looking in to the Ponnampet Telephone Exchange. To my good fortune, there was only one person by that name. I hurriedly noted down the telephone number. There was a sudden excitement within me. I was finally going to hear her voice, after all these years. I rushed to the PCO, dialed in the number.
Tring...Tring...Tring...
"Hello?"
"Hello,could I speak to ...?"
"Who is this?"
"This is Devaki, her pen-friend..." My voice was trembling.
A long silence...
"Dishu, is it really you? Oh my God! I can't believe this. Where are you? Ma, pa, see who's on the line...u remember I used to have a pen-friend.... "
We were both too excited to talk. We had shared so many things during all our growing years, our letters always carried so much in them. But now during this phone conversation, we were suddenly out of words!
"I want to meet you, dear. Tell me when can I see you."
She told me she was practicing in a clinic in Ponnampet & the only chance to meet her was to go to Ponnampet. Madikeri was too far for her to travel all the way. She could only do it over the weekend but we wouldn't be there till then. I promised I would definitely make a trip to her home. At that point of time, I did not know how I was going to do it but all I knew was that, I was not going to leaveCoorg without meeting my pen-friend.
I rushed to meet my other tour-mates. I had to some how work this out. By the time I reached their room, they had already chalked out the entire tour plan. We were supposed to hire a Sumo which was going to take us around. To modify an already made itinerary was tough but I somehow still managed to convince them that we will go toPonnampet to meet my friend on one of the days.
Finally the day dawned. We covered the site-seeing spots as per our schedule and we finally headed towards our final destination for the evening. Even though our driver was alocalite , finding the place was not so easy. We had to stop at several occasions, asking for directions because the house was located in a very remote location. Looking at our desperate plight, she sent her father to a nearby shop which was on the main road. When we reached there, we found him waiting cheerfully for us. He jumped into our car & from there, gave our driver the right directions to their home.
I still remember. I was sitting in the back seat. We stopped our Sumo in front of the house. Someone opened the back door for us to get out and there she was, standing with her sister and mother, smiling continuously as she looked at me. As I approached her, I was greeted with a big, warm hug. We were both jumping out of joy. I literally had tears in my eyes. I was meeting this girl for the first time in my life, but it felt like I knew her all my life!
She finished her 12th from Coorg & joined a Dental College in Mangalore. I took up Engineering in Goa itself. We had managed to keep in touch through all these years. But professional courses were very demanding. Classes, Practicals, Assignments took most of our times & the regular letters became 'not so regular'. We had just entered the new millennium & everyone was smitten by the dot com revolution. We graduated from hand-written letters to computerized emails! No worries of lost letters. No headaches of buying stamps, envelopes, stationary. No need to drop the letters in the post-office. Email was quick & free. Just press the Send button & your mail delivery is done! For the first few months, we both very eagerly sent emails to each other. But after some time, we realized that emails missed the personal 'touch' that hand-written letters carried with them. When I would read a letter from her in her very own hand-writing, I would feel as if she was talking to me in person. Unfortunately,a type-written email could not match up to it. Since the emails were so quick in delivery, there would be nothing left to discuss & it eventually started getting boring. We did not even realize when the emails suddenly stopped. "We are busy in our personal lives", that was our excuse.
2003:
I had just finished my 3rd year of engineering. We were exhausted after answering the tough exams & we badly needed a break. The college authorities never took any responsibilities of organizing tours or outings. One of our batch mates suggested the idea of a short out-station trip. I was excited the moment I heard the idea. I was always excited at every idea of an outing. But the headcount of interested folks revealed only 9 takers. That was a little disappointing turnover but we still decided to go ahead with the original plan. Now the discussions began about the place to visit. We needed a place,not too far from Goa coz we just had 5 days to wind up the tour. I don't remember who suggested Coorg & Coorg it was, unanimously everyone Else's decision too. The thought of my pen-friend crossed my mind but then it had been quite some time since we had written to each other so I discarded even the slight chances of us meeting up. I started packing for my trip.
An overnight bus journey to Mangalore & a local bus ride of five hours from there & we were in the most beautiful district of Karnataka-Kodagu. We were going to stay at Madikeri. We checked into our hotels, freshened up & did not realize when the day was almost over. Some of us had gathered in a room trying to chalk out the plan for the next few days. I did not have any particular thing to do. I was just loitering around in the hotel lobby, enjoying the cool breeze. Just then, my pen-pal's thought crossed my mind. "I am inCoorg , her hometown. I should try to at least contact her." But I did not have her contact number, nor her postal address. Just then, my eyes went on the telephone directory kept at the reception counter. I tried to recollect the address one last time. All I could remember was her father's name & her city- 'Ponnampet- South Coorg'. I started looking in to the Ponnampet Telephone Exchange. To my good fortune, there was only one person by that name. I hurriedly noted down the telephone number. There was a sudden excitement within me. I was finally going to hear her voice, after all these years. I rushed to the PCO, dialed in the number.
Tring...Tring...Tring...
"Hello?"
"Hello,could I speak to ...?"
"Who is this?"
"This is Devaki, her pen-friend..." My voice was trembling.
A long silence...
"Dishu, is it really you? Oh my God! I can't believe this. Where are you? Ma, pa, see who's on the line...u remember I used to have a pen-friend.... "
We were both too excited to talk. We had shared so many things during all our growing years, our letters always carried so much in them. But now during this phone conversation, we were suddenly out of words!
"I want to meet you, dear. Tell me when can I see you."
She told me she was practicing in a clinic in Ponnampet & the only chance to meet her was to go to Ponnampet. Madikeri was too far for her to travel all the way. She could only do it over the weekend but we wouldn't be there till then. I promised I would definitely make a trip to her home. At that point of time, I did not know how I was going to do it but all I knew was that, I was not going to leaveCoorg without meeting my pen-friend.
I rushed to meet my other tour-mates. I had to some how work this out. By the time I reached their room, they had already chalked out the entire tour plan. We were supposed to hire a Sumo which was going to take us around. To modify an already made itinerary was tough but I somehow still managed to convince them that we will go toPonnampet to meet my friend on one of the days.
Finally the day dawned. We covered the site-seeing spots as per our schedule and we finally headed towards our final destination for the evening. Even though our driver was alocalite , finding the place was not so easy. We had to stop at several occasions, asking for directions because the house was located in a very remote location. Looking at our desperate plight, she sent her father to a nearby shop which was on the main road. When we reached there, we found him waiting cheerfully for us. He jumped into our car & from there, gave our driver the right directions to their home.
I still remember. I was sitting in the back seat. We stopped our Sumo in front of the house. Someone opened the back door for us to get out and there she was, standing with her sister and mother, smiling continuously as she looked at me. As I approached her, I was greeted with a big, warm hug. We were both jumping out of joy. I literally had tears in my eyes. I was meeting this girl for the first time in my life, but it felt like I knew her all my life!
Her entire family welcomed us into their sweet little home. I had read about the Kodagu hospitality, but today I was actually experiencing it. There was an entire table laid down with ice-creams, local sweets, soft-drinks & what not. We didn't know where to begin. She led us towards the seating area in the house & her mother brought her sister's wedding album.Coorgie weddings are world famous, for their traditions & customs. We were especially fascinated by the way all the women draped their Saree's. The mother & daughters sensed our curiosity, they spoke something in their language & led us towards the bedroom. There, her mother opened the cupboard & took out four rich Saree's, along with the matching accessories, one for each one of us. The three of them helped us dress into those Saree's, theCoorgie way. All of us looked so pretty and we couldn't stop taking pictures.It was amazing! Time just flew by and before we realized, it was time to leave.
With a heavy heart, I bid a warm goodbye to my pen-friend and to her lovely family and hopped back into the Sumo. These simple people, had touched my heart in a very special way and had made this trip so memorable for all of us!
