Where are the stamp collectors and pen friends?

When I sit brooding over the past, I remember the hobbies that I used to pursue in my childhood and wonder how those have vanished from the lives of the kids of today. One of these was stamp collection, also known as philately. I used to hunt for and treasure my collection of used stamps that I would remove carefully from envelopes. Some would be from letters that would come to our address, others would be exchanges with class friends. If I had more than one stamp of the same motif, I would preserve them for possible swapping. It was easy to get hold of postage stamps of India but, for foreign stamps, I had to rely on other sources.

And, one of such sources was making pen friends in foreign countries.
For this, the magazines in the public libraries like the USIS and British Council were great because they used to publish notices for pen friends. There would be details of those who wanted pen friends and could be contacted. Those days there were no fears of getting duped or being taken for a ride. It used to be a simple way of life and no one had to read too much in between the lines. People were straightforward and honest. And, since using telephones to contact anyone outside the country was out of the question due to prohibitive costs and non-availability of facilities, pen friends had to depend on communicating through letters. Therefore, making pen friends meant opening the door to lay hands on foreign stamps.
The sad part is that all those tiny things that used to make life so attractive have been transformed into animate objects – the personal touch is missing.
No one sends letters any more, they resort to e-mails which do not require stamps.
And, why have a few pen friends when you can have hundreds of them waiting for you to link up in the chat room- identities are immaterial. You may think the other party to be just what you want but the ‘she’ could actually be a ‘he’ who has disguised his voice!!
In case you decide to meet ‘her’ in person and make a trip to ‘her’ place, you may fall into some well laid out trap where your life could be in danger. (to be continued …)

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Mangoes are forever

Ripe mangoes and mango cakes or amsatta