When I was young and in college (long time ago!) my mom used to write letters and I was so happy to receive them and read/re-read them. Now, other than my office emails,junk mails and other useless emails in my inbox there is no letter of significance in my inbox (and in my deleted mails).
We write emails,facebook posts, tweets,useless blogs(like
this),comments and everything else that may not be stored and sold in auctions
in the future. I want to bring attention to few letters in history that changed
the course of history or created history.
If you know more letters like these please post them as
'comments' to this post.
Science Letters
In one of my previous post I had written about Einstein
and his letter to FDR.
Link to the post here.
His letter was ignored by the US administrator up until
the pearl harbor attack. After that the letter gained significance and the rest
is history(always rest is history then what is geography?)
I read recently in the book 'Disappearing Spoon' about
the letter Georgy Flyorov wrote to
Stalin which encouraged Russia to start a nuclear program. Imagine one letter starting the entire nuclear program !
Charles Batchelor - right hand man for Edison wrote a letter
a gave to Tesla .
Spiritual letter
I had also mentioned earlier about Mother Theresa and her
letters to Vatican,
Link to that post here
Mother Theresa was skeptical about her role ,God's plan
and trust in Jesus. She wrote them as letters to Vatican which was published as
part of her claim to Sainthood. Being divine is no big deal. Being a human and
attaining divinity is where Mother Theresa proved to be worthy as a Saint and
one of the greatest humans who walked on this earth!
From the Prison
Indian freedom fighters wrote letters - Gandhi . I was
amazed to see his letters where he signs "I am etc.." or "Yours
etc.." . Look at some of his famous letters here
As
the events of the Birmingham
Campaign intensified on the
city’s streets, Martin Luther King, Jr., composed a letter from his prison cell
in Birmingham in response to local religious leaders’ criticisms of the
campaign: “Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much
too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been
much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can
one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters,
think long thoughts and pray long prayers?” (King, Why,94-95).
From this link
MLK wrote his famous letter from
Birmingham JailMandela wrote letters from Jail.
Here is a collection of 12 letters from Mandela.
1 country got independence, 2 others got equal rights for all humans by men who wrote letters from Jail(among other things)
There is a old Crazy mohan ( a Tamil play writer )joke I remember where a person is asked "Do you read letters to the editor?" The other promptly answers "I don't read letters not addressed to me".
I encourage y'all to read some of these letters(not addressed to you) to understand what they individuals tried conveying using an apparatus called pen on an unique piece of something called paper - in this day of apps and web - hand letters written letters are like painting inside a cave!
Keep writing(electronically of course!)
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran
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