By Md. Zillur Rahaman

September 1 is recognized as International Letter Day or World Letter Writing Day. An Australian named Richard Simpkin founded World Letter Writing Day in 2014. In the late 1990s Simpkin wrote letters to what he considered to be Australian legends. When these legends started replying to him through letters, he became quite excited. In 2005 Simpkin published his book "Australian Legends". His excitement and interest in letters led to the creation of a day dedicated to letter writing. He organized letter writing workshops in various schools to help promote letter writing. Also encourage adults to take a break from social media and write letters.

Compassion, love seems to be lost in the age of technology. At one time, letters were the only means of communication with distant people. People don't read letters written by loved ones once, they read them again and again. Sometimes he used to kiss, he would have been overjoyed to receive the letter. A letter from a father sent from a distance to a son, a letter from a husband to a wife would make them happy. In the letter, we could find the shadow of that familiar person, the feeling of dislike and touch. Writers have written poems, songs, stories, novels, dramas and many more with letters. Some letter has become history or someone has become history by writing a letter. Today, that letter has almost disappeared due to the evolution of time.

A letter is a written informational message from one person to another. Letters maintain communication between two or two parties, brings friends and relatives closer, develops professional relationships and gives opportunities for self-expression. Letters also once contributed to sustaining literacy. Until the invention of paper, people used to write their thoughts on tree leaves and send them to their loved ones, so leaves were called letters. People have exchanged letters since ancient times, as mentioned in the Iliad. It is also mentioned in the works of Herodotus and Thucydides.

Clear information about who wrote the first letter to whom in the world and when is still unknown. But many years ago in the Sumerian region of Mesopotamia, people used to express their feelings by drawing pictures. Like the stars in the sky meant the night, or the pictures of arrows and bows meant the description of war. The name of this medium of expressing in the mind through pictures was pictrogram. This pictogram is called an evolved form of the letter.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, letters were written for self-education. Letters were a method of studying, describing experiences, writing polemical or exchanging ideas with like-minded others. Some people think of letters as just writing. Others think it is a means of communication. Several passages of the Bible are written in letters. All letters—personal, diplomatic, or commercial—are used by later historians as primary sources. Sometimes the letter took on such an artistic form that it became a literary pride, as in Byzantine epistolography or the literary epistolary novel.

Civilization has come around these post office letters. The first stamped letters began in 1840 during the reign of Queen Victoria. Letters have long reigned supreme in human communication. The way this medium was successful, it is doubtful whether any other medium will succeed in the future. Einstein's famous letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt by Edward Taylor and Leo Shellard proposing the development of the atomic bomb. Historically, letters were in use in ancient India, ancient Egypt, Sumer, ancient Rome, Egypt and China, and are still practiced today, but now no one could write a letter except for official or commercial work. Again very little goes through mail, mostly through email or some such virtual medium.

From the ancient history of the subcontinent, Qasids or couriers were sent to convey news from one place to another. However, pigeons were used to send messages to distant regions. Pigeons were trained for this purpose. A small piece of news tied to a pigeon's leg, which was delivered to a specific destination. Emperor Genghis Khan kept in touch with his conquered states through this pigeon. Then, as the days progressed, new additions came to the postal system. Horse carts were added to the postal system during the reign of Qutubuddin Aibek, the first Sultan of Delhi. According to the account of the traveler Ibn Battuta, there was a two-way postal system at that time. One was for general mail delivery on foot and the other was for emergencies such as news of foreign invasions or news of war wins and losses were sent through the horse mail system. Indian postal system underwent radical reforms during Sher Shah's rule. He built a long road from Sonargaon to Sindh province to facilitate the postal system.

Many things are constantly changing in the evolution of time. The hi-tech of modernity is taking over old customs, systems, and lifestyles. There was a time when letters were the only means of communication. It is like an original fairy tale. The means of communication were 'toretakka' telegrams and letters. Before that, news was sent by tying letters to the feet of pigeons. After writing on paper and sending the letter full of envelopes, the waiting time should not be long. There were postcards and different colored pads for writing letters. Then it was put in the post box. Then it's time to wait.

Post boxes are now rarely seen in cities or towns. The red mailboxes, which look like people standing on a big banyan tree in local area or standing on the side of the road in the city, are practically non-functional now. No postman, no letter, no one writes letters now. People have forgotten the habit of writing letters. Once upon a time, the postman had enough respect. Especially the incident of delivering love letters is still indelible in many people's memories.

Many people used to get bored waiting for the letter - why the letter doesn't come and it's late, haven't you forgotten me... Many a postman is a silent witness to many a love affair. The runner ran away in the darkness of the night with a sack of letters on his back and jingling bells. That image is found in poet Sukanta Bhattacharya's famous poem—Runner is running so jhoom jhoom bells are ringing in the night/Runner is running with the burden of news, runner is running, runner! Walking on the road at night does not know any prohibitions to obey. From horizon to horizon, he has taken the job of runner to bring new news. That runner's letter, that postal department are now on the way to extinction due to the digital age.

In today's modern information technology era, like many memories of that time, there are no such memories to remember. The profession of letter writing was developed around letter writing. People from all walks of life used to line up on the balcony of the post office. Postage stamps, postal orders, envelopes, registry letters, money orders, post cards, insurance, parcels, GME, VPP, EMS, commemorative stamps, postal life insurance, life insurance, post office savings bank and government employees' salaries were all sent through letters at the post office. Even non-judicial stamps had to be collected from the post office. Far away, people used to make money orders, those who read and wrote would inquire several times from the postal clerk when the money would arrive. If the working people send money to their homes through the post office, their families would be eager for the money. Due to their demand, the medium of exchange of letters and money-orders was rapidly becoming popular. These are now only the past.

In those days, people who did not know how to read, the post office clerks would sit on a balcony or a chair-table at a convenient place to do their correspondence, money order or dispatch work. From the British era, the correspondence flourished for 150 years. Some less educated people of villages used to write letters for pennies. Of course, their values were different. In self-written letters, hundreds of thousands of words of the heart and all its emotions, longings and worries were revealed. When parents receive their child's handwritten letters, they read them with a tender heart. Parents could also see their child's face within the letter. They used to caress the letter unconsciously.

Illiterate people tried to acquire literacy only to read and write letters. 'Letters' contributed immensely to the spread of education at that time. Again, family letters were often used as a substitute for newspapers. In the letter, various news including news of any incident and hopes of the village, news of plantations or news of natural disasters were written. In fact, the handwritten letter would create a bridge of close relationship and depth of love between families.

Science has given us many new technologies. Smart mobile phone in everyone's pocket. The words of the heart reach the loved ones in an instant. Saved us labor, cost and time. No need to carry the letter and drop it in the mailbox. If you make a mistake, you don't have to cut it again and again. Many innovations have been incorporated into our lives. No matter how fast the exchange of letters or information is on Facebook, Twitter or mail, the emotionality of a letter written on paper should not be forgotten even today.

Many people now think that it is necessary to abandon the current technology and spend time leaning on the past, and today's post offices are turning their hands away from letter delivery because of the mind of the letter senders. Most of the letters that come to post offices now are office letters, i.e. letters that are useful letters from schools, colleges or offices. Therefore, in the number of post offices from villages to cities, the exchange of letters is gradually becoming secondary. Post Offices are mostly used as alternative means of saving people's money. So it would not be an exaggeration to say that rural post offices are mini versions of banks today.

The love letters were each timeless great love stories. In the era of traditional letters, all the lovers wrote the details of the longing of the heart or the waiting time in simple language mixed with the sweetness of the heart. The loved ones used to collect what they read besides being enthralled. The language and mood of the letters seemed to be a story or a novel composed of hundreds of flowers.

However, that time of waiting for the letter to be answered has also disappeared from our lives today. Now you don't have to wait day after day to get news of relatives or friends, which was once the case for handwritten letters. The internet, mobile- SMS has replaced the letter. With this change in the medium of communication, people's life has become easier, but letters are getting lost. In this age of the Internet, the use of paper-written letters has decreased a lot, but it has not stopped completely. Many official letters still come through the Post Office every day. But there is also a touch of modernity.

The writer is a Banker and Columnist