Met my penfriend, at last!

Whatever you call: "the black and white" or "slim and fat"... we are friends. Meet the man in red shirt. He is a professor in agricultural sciences in the prestigious Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. He lives in a city called Coimbatore which is about 120 miles from here. He has been to the US twice for research. The picture ws taken two years ago in his city where I had been on official duty for 3 days. I had made it a point to meet him.

The common hobby of radio listening and stamp collecting had brought us together 21 years ago and had exchanged numerous letters as pen-friends. I wonder, by this meeting, we cease to be "pen-friends"??

Here is how we met. I had called him and told him where we stayed (a hotel). We had mutually agreed to meet at a particular time. We had not seen each other at all. How do we recognize? I was walking out near my hotel that evening with my colleague and at that scheduled time, I saw a man in red shirt coming in the opposite direction. In that instant, the picture he had sent me some years ago, flashed through my mind (he had more hair in that pic!) and I knew for sure it was him. I called out his name as he passed by. He stopped after a couple of metres, surprised! He wondered how I could recognize him without any clues!

We went to our room and had a long chat on various things. Luckily, my other colleague had his camera and we could take this picture to remember our 'historic' meeting. In a nearby hotel, he hosted me dinner and then we departed, promising more letters to be exchanged. But then, that has never happened, due to obvious reasons - both of us having growing families. He is older to me by 6 years.

I have another penfriend in the city of Kolkata (Calcutta, was the old spelling). But we have spoken over phone about 3-4 times, but still haven't met, even though I was in his city last year to play cricket. Kolkata is almost 3 days rail journey from Mysore. I had a few in India and abroad too, but all of them have ceased to write letters since long. Only one retired Captain of Marine company in Ecuador (South America) is in touch besides these two. I can tell you, penfriendship is really interesting from which we can learn a lot of beautiful things.

Dinu, I always read a thread which has your name because it is so interesting. What a nice friendship! I don't have a penfriend, but years ago always wrote my great aunt at least once a week. We always stayed in touch till she died and I looked forward to hearing from her. I think writing to one another has become a thing of the past with computers and the various communication technologies we have now. Of course we wouldn't be able to hear from you if we didn't have such advances. Anyway just wanted to know I enjoyed putting a face to the interesting threads. Jenny

That's wonderful you got to met him in person! I have two penfriends but never met them. We still writing eachother for 19 years since I was only 13 years old that I started. They lives in USA. I need to go and meet them one day soon! I hope so.

It's sad you lost touch with one another. Like you say, growing families take the focus.

Dinu, try a Google search using his name, maybe you can find him that way. It would be wonderful if you could reestablish contact.

Thanks Jenny and the rest. I have not lost touch with him totally. I know he is there but he also heads a department in the University and that makes him all the more occupied. He is a phone-call away. Just that the frequency of letters has drastically reduced. As years pass, we also tend to 'prioritize' things and this is one of them. Our friendship stays. But we should know where we are and we should always make it a point to inform in case we move (I don't, for sure) the address. He did so, many years ago and so my letters could find him there. In fact, he had told me how busy he was and so I can understand his priorities.

There is nothing like waiting for the postman to see if we got any letters! There were times when there were at least 5 in a week from various persons and rarely the postman disappointed. That curiosity can never be matched! E-mails does not surely match that sort of 'anxiety'. That gave a lot of thrill. Unfortunately, my friend does not have an e-mail as yet. I have pumped him to have one, but some people never get started with new things!

With his being at a university and all, could you not persuade him to use e-mail?

Sometimes I wish everyone had e-mail. I admit it: I am lazy. I procrastinate hand-writing (or even typing) and mailing snail mail letters, but I will e-mail someone in an instant.

me write a hand written letter? OUCH!

I remember him having told me that his dept. is getting the Internet facility at that time and that he is not adept in using computers (then). I tried to convince him the advantages and the convenience in using the keyboard. But then, that was all I tried to do to inspire him. I had even given my e-mail IDs. Whereas my other penfriend who lives in Ecuador, (he must be about 60+ now) sent me a couple of e-mail replies a couple of years ago, but then he too stopped. I wonder if my mails were reaching him. At least he was trying to do! Not yet, this friend.

Kim, your procrastination/laziness to do the usual things is not uncommon! I see people here, as soon as they buy a petrol-driven scooter, they push the old bicycle to the corner! I have not done it so far. I enjoy cycling and my cycle is ready any moment. I use it when I have a few minutes extra where I have to go alone. No wonder, Kim, the attractive conveniences of the present generation tend to make us lazy. But we should do our best to keep up a fair pace and be abreast with our own lifestyles.

Speaking about e-mails, it has brought many of our school classmates together. I had written all about it in another thread sometime ago. It is certainly advantageous, provided, if one is using it regularly!