THE RED POST BOX
Editor's Note:
"Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company" wrote Lord Byron. For every Lawrencian the weekly letter home and receiving letters from home were events that triggered different emotions. This particularly in bygone days when letters were the only medium of communication and the telephone was used only in dire emergencies!
The author of today's blog post is Rear Admiral Philipose G. Pynumootil, AVSM, NM, Indian Navy (Retd) SUM 1982, the current Vice President of The Old Lawrencians Association. This is an updated version of an article he wrote a few years ago:-
A Red Post Box hanging forlornly on a wall screaming for a long overdue paint job seems unlikely to kick up a flurry of emotions. It was sad to note that the 'Next Clearance' timing slot was empty - did this imply that 'snail mail' was officially dead? I discovered this Post Box during a 3 hour walk around The Lawrence School, Lovedale, my Alma Mater. I once declared all teary eyed at the end of a speech, "Whatever I am today, is because of The Lawrence School, Lovedale." To which a collective shout rang out from a bunch of classmates, "You can't blame just one institution".'!!!
The art of letter writing for us began in the tiny classroom in the 4th Grade under the watchful eyes of Mrs V ENOS, English teacher par excellence. She taught over 4 decades of Lawrencians their Ps and Qs including Arundhati Roy and several other greats in their chosen vocations. Every Monday afternoon was our letter writing session conducted by Mrs Enos.
A diminutive figure in a dress, hair perfectly combed, the picture of an English teacher of yore. Each kid suggested a point for inclusion in our missives to our folks. The points that were selected were written on the blackboard in her amazing handwriting. Then 30 kids in each section put pen to Inland letter and scrawled all the points. These included the weather, food, games, events of the week etc. The last paragraph was left to us for personal stuff... the "How's my dog / cycle / kid sister?" etc.. She glanced through each letter to ensure it was neat and made sense. If parents exchanged notes they would have seen that all kids wrote identical letters... Akin to the painful forwards we receive on each WhatsApp group today.
In the 5th grade you were on our own. Mrs Enos wasn't there to guide us through our letter writing. She had taught us well and we went on though 5th grade.. and through our lives thereafter... Writing good, polite letters through our lives. There is a bit of Mrs Enos in our writing in each of us wherever we are..... In fancy boardrooms, operation theaters, academic institutions, the Bridges of Destroyers, Sukhoi 30 cockpits, T 90 tanks. She gave us Good and Bad marks for jobs well done and mess ups. Tiny Blue and Red stars in her register that we craved for and feared respectively. Swearing called for washing our mouths with soap. Even decades later the taste of Hamam soap is fresh in my mouth! She gave equal importance to diction, sentence formation, using the appropriate word etc. The frantic request of a kid with a full tank , "Can I leave the class?" was answered with a caustic, "You can, but you may not!"
Each of our letters were taken in large bundles and faithfully posted in this tiny red post box below Prep School. The Pin Code 643003 is etched in our minds from the countless times we wrote it on the reverse side of the blue Inland letters handed to us each week. Many years later I found ALL the letters my elder brother, sister and I wrote home carefully tagged year wise and stored away by our Mom.
Receiving letters was a huge high in Boarding Schools. Every couple of days the House Master would come in with a bunch of letters into our dormitory and some 50 of us would crowd around him, praying for our names to be called out as he handed out letters. Letters seem as archaic and passe as hieroglyphics in King Tuts tomb. Replaced quite abruptly by the epidemic of instant messaging. What's app, kik, snap chat, line with their inane lexicon... LOL, OMG, BRB and whatever.
Mrs Enos is 101 years old now. She has undoubtedly seen these changes pan out before her bespectacled eyes. The joy of receiving a beautiful birthday card far outweighs the 100 msgs on various apps... Mostly forwards /copied lines.
Goodbye, Red Post Box. You served us well. Stand there bravely, as you have over the past half century. A silent reminder of the forgotten art of letter writing. And yes, I promise to give you a fresh coat of paint on my next visit.
Editor's Note:
Admiral Pynumootil, a Seaking pilot, is an alumnus of The Lawrence School, Lovedale and the 67 Course, National Defence Academy. He has commanded INAS 330 and was the commissioning CO of INS Shikra. His surface tenures include command of Nashak, Kirpan and Brahmaputra, besides doing a tenure as Executive Officer, INS Delhi. He has undergone the Staff Course, Higher Air Command Course and the Royal College of Defence Studies course in London where he obtained a MA (International Studies) from Kings College. He was the Flag Officer Naval Aviation & Goa Area at the time of his retirement in April 2022.
Thanks Philipose for your post, and we look forward to more from you. I loved your use of the red post box as a prompt for this charming post!
I would like to think the "Red Post Box" can trigger many more posts from OLs. Often, it's the little things in life that remain in our memories for years to come. What will provoke the next blog post in some OL somewhere? "Nattukais"? "Boys School Bananas", " Pichis" , "Cem", "Clock Tower", ?? ??
Should any OL wish to contribute a blog post, please write in to : olalovedale@gmail.com with "OLA-Glimpses Blog" in the Subject Line. Don't forget to mention your House and Year of Passing.
2 comments:
I joined school in 1963 as a seventh std student in the Junior School _ Himalaya House and the hose Master was Mr. Sisodia. He was the one that introduced me to the practice of letter writing - once a week - to my parents. In 1964, when i was in Sumeru House, the weekly letter writing was done on Thursdays in the study period after dinner. Mr. Iyengar would arrive at about 8:25 pm to collect the inland letters. We were required to leave the letter open so that the housemaster could read the contents, if he chose to.
In my five years of college, I did not write letters to my parents given that my father was posted in Chennai and I was studying at the IIT in Madras. However, in 1973, I came to the US and the habit of writing a letter on Thursdays resumed. This practice continued until 1982, when I got married. After that, the weekly letters became bi-weekly and then monthly and then ultimately was replaced by a telephone call !! The habit of writing a letter on Thursday evenings, learnt in School, cannot be forgotten!! !
The comment above was written by Ranthi Dev, Class of 1967, Sumeru House
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