During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport. That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’t ju
When was the last time you sent a postcard? Come to think of it, when was the last time you used the Postal Service? With the world becoming a much smaller place with the advent of the internet, even the phone is now getting redundant. Most of my friends these days are those I have met over the net and communicated with via one of the social networking sites.
Coming back to postcards, Samhith hardly even knows what a postcard is! Yes, he has seen them... considering that I buy picture postcards wherever I go, but beyond that, he doesn't really understand that we used to actually use them to communicate with our family and friends. Last month, their school took them to a post office, bought inland letters, made the kids write a letter to their moms, and posted it. He came home thrilled, wanting to see his letter at home. When I explained to him that it would take at least a couple of days to reach, he was surprised. Every single day after that, when he returned home, he asked for it, and when even after 4 days, the postcard didn’t arrive, he thought I had hidden it away! Thankfully, the letter arrived on the fifth day, and he was there to open it himself. I have rarely seen him so thrilled about something as simple as opening a letter. He brought out an old letter opener I thought I had hidden away from him, and ceremoniously opened it and read it before allowing me to read it too! I promised myself that I would make him send letters to others too, and cajole my cousins to sending him letters and cards too by the post, but that has yet to happen...
Coming back to postcards, Samhith hardly even knows what a postcard is! Yes, he has seen them... considering that I buy picture postcards wherever I go, but beyond that, he doesn't really understand that we used to actually use them to communicate with our family and friends. Last month, their school took them to a post office, bought inland letters, made the kids write a letter to their moms, and posted it. He came home thrilled, wanting to see his letter at home. When I explained to him that it would take at least a couple of days to reach, he was surprised. Every single day after that, when he returned home, he asked for it, and when even after 4 days, the postcard didn’t arrive, he thought I had hidden it away! Thankfully, the letter arrived on the fifth day, and he was there to open it himself. I have rarely seen him so thrilled about something as simple as opening a letter. He brought out an old letter opener I thought I had hidden away from him, and ceremoniously opened it and read it before allowing me to read it too! I promised myself that I would make him send letters to others too, and cajole my cousins to sending him letters and cards too by the post, but that has yet to happen...
Meanwhile, I am participating in the International Postcard Swap for families 2011, conducted by Playing by the Book. They had a similar swap last year, which I missed narrowly. I have been eagerly looking forward to this year’s swap.
Playing by the book is a website dedicated to books, and that too kids books, which is what makes it really interesting for me. Over the last year that I have been reading their blog, I have become familiar with many of their regular readers and contributors, and this is a wonderful way to get in touch with them in a more personal manner. For more details, check out their site or click on the link below…
Interesting, isn’t it? And it’s easy to sign up. All you need to do is to read the FAQs posted in the link above, and then send an email to Zoe. She will get back to you with the form where you have to give her your details, which will help her match you up with the other families. So those of you who read this, especially those with kids, go ahead and sign up and introduce your kids to the pleasure of sending and receiving postcards from across the world!
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