LET’S SEND A GREETING CARD?
So the other day I went to a shopping mart with my mommy to grab the regular weekly grocery. You guys are well aware of how desi mums tend to be. They plan their trips to market with this intention of buying a ‘few’ things but as soon as they enter the premises of the market and get to scan various departments and shelves, guess what? They end up buying almost the entire store from extra bottles of shampoos to extra pasta packets to extra everything.
Anyhow, while my mother was busy doing grocery, I immediately ran towards the cosmetic aisle (my biggest fascination these days and in future) however on my way, I saw another section of the store and stopped promptly because it was my forever favorite greeting cards section. Well, this might sound crazy, but I have always had ‘this’ thing for greeting cards. Before leaving Pakistan, I gave away most of my stuff to my cousins and friends (now I know why girls rant about giving away their clothes to younger sisters when they are getting married ha-ha) and I had to throw away the other half of the stuff I possessed *sniff sniff* because well obviously, all thanks to the custom department, they don’t let you carry more than two luggage bags and a hand carry for most of the airlines and if you are taking a transit from London, that’s an exceptional case because they only allow you a single luggage; one of the reasons I had to give up on that Etihad flight and choose Turkish airline instead. Sigh. So the motive behind telling you all these airline stories is that I had limited capacity for my stuff. As I emptied my wardrobe to pack up my stuff, i found a box containing greeting cards that I kept carefully somewhere beneath my clothes and had forgotten about completely.
Now let’s talk about that box of greeting cards. They contained the Eid cards that I used to exchange with my friends when I was a kid ha-ha. Remember the time when there was this hype about eid gifts and those fancy cartoonish eid cards, those were the times man. All my birthday cards (I think cards should be mandatory along the birthday gift), I mean i love gifts too duhhh but cards are the cherry to the cake hayee) and a few friendship cards. Just to tell you more about myself, it was a ritual that on my birthday, my best friend would always get me a handmade card like a huge one, sometimes a booklet type card or a poster reflecting her creativity. I have brought them here with me and I guess I am going to keep them forever because they are too cute and have all our inside jokes. I am sharing their pictures just to give you all some idea. Also, I have this huge booklet that my other best friend gifted me before she was leaving for America (isn’t it ironic that despite living in the same country, we haven’t met each other since past ten months) yes, I know you are reading this and this is a warning for you to show me poop face as soon as possible huh. Well excuse this; I shall continue with these taunts on our private chat... So coming back to that booklet card, this booklet comprise of all our pictures, quotes and uncountable memories that we made in our high school. So it’s pretty special to me.
The only time your siblings and cousins are nice to you is when you are leaving them for whatsoever purpose, I swear. My cousins also decided to act decent and amiable when I was leaving Karachi for Canada, and each one of them gave me miss you cards and small gifts (isn’t it cute?) oh and lots of chocolates that I cheerfully munched during my flight delay on Istanbul airport because to be honest, the food served on Turkish airline was not at all appetizing ah don’t even want to remember it. Nothing could be more disappointing than receiving tasteless food on flight like dude I didn’t pay this huge amount for a bland baby steak with a table spoon of flavorless mashed potatoes and inadequate serving of stir fried veggies. Like seriously?? The ambiance was so pleasant but the food was completely opposite.
One of the many differences that I observed between Pakistan and America or I would rather assume the entire west is that in Pakistan, the trend to exchange greeting cards has declined a lot in the past couple of years. I remember when I was a kid; we loved exchanging greeting cards on different occasion. Well the reason is pretty obvious; we didn’t have cellphones. And I believe it was a blessing that we grew up during the time when cellphone did not exist or even if it did, my parents did not ruin my childhood by providing access to all these gadgets that we have now. Cellphones have surely made our lives simpler and communication easier but I don’t think that a happy birthday wall post on face book or a birthday text or even a phone call would be as thoughtful as a letter or a birthday card. I read the following words as I was scrolling down my instagram and couldn’t agree more ‘What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You cannot reread a phone call’. I have been fond of writing letters and sending greeting cards because I believe one can easily pour their heart while writing, imagining the recipient is right in front of them and it is more like a beautiful one sided conversation where you pen down your feelings while the other person reads you. Plus writing a letter shows effort. Somebody thought of you, invested time to write to you, cared for you which show the feelings are real. The way a person writes is a reflection of his soul.
Ok so coming back to the point of discussion, it is conventional here In America and Canada to send greeting cards to your loved ones. They have beautiful greeting cards available at post offices, stationary shops and almost at every other common place so it’s pretty hard to resist the temptation. Whether its mother’s day or father’s day, graduation or anniversary, a regular missing you card or a birthday wish, people prefer mailing greeting cards to their loved ones to acknowledge their essence. You may delete a message, forget a phone call, overlook a post on social media but things like these could be kept safely, carried along and forever remembered. Why not have renaissances of this trend? Make it a habit of sending post cards, letters and greeting cards to show adoration towards people to make them feel special, not just necessarily on particular occasions. You don’t have to be rich and spend millions to make someone feel significant and pleased; a small letter, an email or a greeting card would cost you nothing rather than a few minutes (if you are not fond of writing essays in cards unlike me) but can give them the bliss of their life.
