SMS, WA, e card, or letter for Bijoya greetings.

Today I got an sms, from Ma Durga, it was in bengali, says, "Sabai ke niye bari pouche gechi, pathe kono jhamela hoyni. Oder baba amader nite Manasarovar airporte eshechilo. Tora chinta korishna. Msg ta sobai ke forward kore dis----- Ma Durga, Shubho Bijoya". It means I have reached home along with everyone, didnt have any problems on the way. Their father had come to Manasarovar airport to recieve us. You all do not worry. Forward this msg to everybody-----Ma Durga, Shubho Bijoya. It was fascinating to read the sms. Ofcourse we all know that no Ma Durga has sent the message, still the very thought of it is amusing. After all in todays mordern times Ma Durga too can posess a cell phone, and feel free to use it instead of wasting her extra sensory talents to connect with her devotees down here below the Himalayan region. The sms sent me wondering how times have changed. When we were children the end of Pujos meant letter writing time. And the begining lines of all of them were more or less the same, Dear so & so, mostly addressed to someone older to us, the next line going first of all take my bijoya pronaam, and then naming all the next in line older to us one by one, and conveying them our Bijoya pronaams, and next best wishes to the same age group, namely the cousins, and lastly the line love and blessing to all those who are younger to us, again naming them individually. This gives a personal touch to all those who have been addressed individually. The next paragraph is almost always the same, how did you all spend your pujo, we had a very great time. If the pujos have been disturbed by rains, then that aspect it mentioned, adding that inspite of rains, the enjoyment wasnt dampened at all. Then came the line, how many pujo pandals one has visited, comparision between them, what new clothes each one has got for themselves for the pujo, and also not forgetting to thank those who had sent pujo clothes as gifts. Each one will try to emphasize how good the pujos are in their particular city, and how much they missed their other part of their family, feeling bad that they could not have the same kind of enjoyment in their particular city. Every year more or less the same lines are written over and over again, by each and every bengali, till BSNl & MTNL revolutionalized the whole system of communication. There was a time when one had to make applications for a phone conection and wait for ages, sometimes as a gift for being born a phone connection used to be booked, and when that child is old enough to get married, maybe the phone connection finally arrives. Unless ofcourse one has the right conections, and pulled the right strings to get their conection faster. From those frustrating days, suddenly everyone got their phone conections by just filling a form and submitting and there in a weeks time the phone rings in their homes. Next came in the pagers and soon before one realised there was the internet and mobile phones. Today everyone almost has a cell phone, and an e mail id. Everyone is just an sms away, a phone call away, or an e mail away. With facebook, its still easier, just put it as a status message, " Shubho Bijoya to all ". Short and simple, to the point. But it just makes me wonder, with all the convenience of the sms, and facebook, are we losing the personal touch, the intimacy that there used to be in those days of letter writing. Atleast e mail does have a personal touch, but do we really have that kind of time, or should I say inclination to write letters and e mail them. Sms, and status messages are so much easier. Maybe to give that special touch we can probably send an e card suited for that particular occasion. Going back to those years as kids, I remember my dad used to encourage us to write those letters, and also give details of each and every day of the pujos, which he felt would help us to improve our writing skills along with the sending of Bijoya greetings. I remember trying to avoid as much as possible, the letter writing process, to the extent that once i made this list of people whom i had to write letters, I wrote one letter, copied the same letter for everyone and just changed the names in each of them and posted them to the respective relatives. I know that back then if i had the access to sms, or the internet, I would have been only too happy, but then i would not have got this skill of writing this blog. Well i guess there is a good side and a not so so good to this also like everything else. Shubho Bijoya :D