MyVoice: Views of our readers 26th November 2021

Parenthood triumphs

A family court in Thiruvananthapuram has handed over a one-year-old to his mother, after a DNA test established the parenthood. The mother from whom the infant was taken away forcefully and given away in adaption without her consent had been fighting for her son's custody through day and night sit-in protests for the past 14 days. No power in this country, be it religious, social, moral or political has any right to separate a child from its mother born in a relationship between two consenting adults. Parenthood, especially motherhood is sacrosanct.

Dr George Jacob, Kochi

An irreplaceable mode of communication

This is with reference to the article "When letter writing was an exciting event......."Indeed letter writing is an art in any language especially in English when our leaders think it as a foreign language. All cannot possess the skill for which a lot of hard work is needed. As the writer said the letters written by the past great leaders like Nehru, Gandhi, Radhakrishnan and others are worth noting and preserving.

In our family, past experience shows how a well written letter is acknowledged. When my elder brother wanted to go USAfor higher studies and for admission into a foreign university way back in 70's my father wrote a letter on his behalf with my brother's signature. After that he attended the GRE/TOFFEL test where he got less marks. Immediately the University authorities replying said "your well written letter does not correspond to your score obtained in the GRE. Can you please explain. "

The younger generation now believe that the spellings in the computer language are right. They do not realise that the spellings are fed into it by men/women only. How pity it is sometimes they argue that computer spelling is right and when we try to explain, they do not hear us. Though technology is improved a lot, it gives me immense pleasure in writing a letter and also reading a physical newspaper rather than reading it in the cells which damages the eye sight also.

TSN Rao, Bhimavaram

This has reference to the write-up, "When Letter Writing....... by Dr. Mohan Kanda (Hans 25/11/21). Once letter writing was the only means of communication, before the advent of the telephone and other such things. It was like an art form as letters written by many people in those days show cased the scintillating writing skills of their writers. Those letters have become part of English literature and most of them have been preserved in world libraries and museums for the benefit of the posterity. We all know that the letters of Nehru to Indira bear not only his literary bent of mind but also his intentions to impart his daughter with political sagacity and a world view of human life. Unfortunately, this art of letter writing is on the decline, as is the habit of reading. Teachers and parents have a role in inculcating this letter writing habit among their wards. Hitherto our newspapers and magazines attached lots of importance to the letters of their readers by publishing them prominently and even giving readers prizes for their best letters. Nowadays, alas, many of our newspapers and magazines have dropped this feature altogether, while some have relegated it to the back seat. It is time we revived this habit among our children and youngsters by asking them to read letters, missives, and epistles written by great people.

M Somasekhar Prasad, Hyderabad

This has reference to Part II of "When letter writing was an exciting event..." (25 Nov). One can't blame technology when people are not willing to give time to think and write. Nowadays using technology and devices, everyone from different fields is only reacting instead of thinking and acknowledging, Even the government is using social media to communicate and goofing up. The less said about corporate customer service and response. We now get only auto responses with advice not to respond. Over the last few years, I have sent mails to quite a few ministers, leave alone reply, the mails are not even acknowledged . After all, I don't think any of the present set of Union Ministers can dictate or have any competent secretary to draft them letters or acknowledgement.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad