Sukalpa Dhar, Kolkata: The pulse of pen and paper brings unique and varied forms of emotions in our mind. That is why a letter was so precious to the people in earlier times. It could also be stored years after years.
Now we have limited space in our mobile phones but I have seen many letters stored in my house. A letter brings out memories and incidents from the past. It brings out a vivid picture of the past. It reminds us events of the long lost days from our life. In 1995 mobile phones and the first publicly available internet service in India was launched by state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL). Even though the medium of communication has under gone a drastic change with the advent of mobile phones and internet I have not been deprived of the distinctive flavour of letter.
I was very young when I had experienced an unusual incident. I was in my third standard then. As usual, I returned home from my school with my mother. When we were about to open the gate and enter the premise of the house we saw our landlady, Sinha Aunty, was waiting right in front of the gate. As soon as she saw me and my mother she hurriedly called us inside her house, her face beaming with exuberance. She was holding a letter in her hand, the envelope had my name written on it and the sender’s name was none other than the president of India and from the president’s office, Rashtrapati Bhawan. She asked what it was all about and how it happened. Then my mother narrated the entire episode to her. This episode of my life goes like this that once I wrote a letter to the then president of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. As I heard from my mother that he was not only our president but he was also a great scientist.
Knowing that I was very keen to share my thoughts with the president of India and so I wrote a little letter to the president and my mother posted it to the address of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Nobody knew about this incident as we didn’t express it to anyone and also even we didn’t expect any reply letter from him as he was a scientist and none other than the president of India and so it’s needless to say that he was a very busy person and a VVIP too. Sinha Aunty handed over the letter to me. It was the biggest surprise gift for me as I was handed the reply letter right from the president of India on 28th October, 2002 just the day before my birthday.
I was in seventh heaven. I had read a story named ‘Boka Jola’ means Idiot Weaver written by Upendra Kishore Raychoudhury where a fox promised his weaver friend to make him marry a princess and saying that the fox went to the king’s palace. In this case, like the fox, I didn’t visit the president of India’s palace that is in the Raisina hill and met him but a letter right from there had arrived all the way to Guwahati addressing me. The letter had the stamp of the national emblem on it and the sender address said that it has come all the way from the Rastrapati Bhawan, President’s Estate, New Delhi. It was undoubtedly a red-letter day for me and it will always remain so for my entire life.
The Indian presidential election 2002 was held on 15th July, 2002. In 18th July, 2002 the results were declared and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam became the 11th president of India by beating his nearest rival Capt. (Dr.) Lakshmi Sahgal. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the then ruling party. Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance backed Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam drew all my attentions when I heard that he was a scientist too.
He was known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He also played a very vital organisational, technical and political role in India’s Pokhran–II nuclear tests in 1998. He received the Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his contribution to the scientific research and modernisation of defence technology in India.
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was very popular among the students. He came from outside the political spectrum. He had a genuine childlike instinct which attracted the children towards him. He loved children a lot and that’s why I think he had given so much importance and responded to my small letter. Now I think how great a person he was and totally different from others.
Ao today I felt like sharing the letter with everyone. I think people will enjoy this fond incident which happened with me once.
