My 11-year-old daughter, Rija, finds any excuse to draw. And then she wants to show her creations to her numerous cousins and aunts. Actual show, not the scanned version displayed on my Facebook page. The Eid cards and birthday cards are actually posted after a visit to the local post office... and then the wait game begins. She expects a reply in the same form of communication — the snail mail. Rija gets a ‘thank you’ call, a ‘thank you’ email but rarely ever, an actual ‘thank you’ note in the paper mail. And this is the time when I curse the super-paced communication technology.

In the paperless world of ‘go green, save the trees’ story, we have killed the tradition of letter writing. Instant messages and emails have conquered the art of pen and ink and the exact science of affixing a postage stamp; technology has deprived us of the simple pleasure of the feel of paper and the thrill recognising a loved one’s handwriting. An email is more convenient, fast and readily available. Who has the time, in this age, to actually sit down and write? But for the supporters of the traditional way of communication, a hand-written note will always be a visual pleasure, in a way that a digital substitute can never be.

My sister-in-law had sent us a gorgeous flower basket on our anniversary. Would a simple two-line email be acceptable for all the thought and effort she put into that bouquet? Or how about the time when my aunt from Sialkot hand knitted a sweater for Rija on her first birthday? If I still have it, shouldn’t she also have a letter letting her know how touched we were? Every time she would look at my letter, she would know all her hard work paid off and it was a gift we thoroughly enjoyed. She can’t hold my digital thanks in her hands, the way she would hold my note.

When I get a personal hand-written letter, I can’t wait to open it. In a pile of bills and junk mail, it’s a treasure in a paper envelope, full of promise and potential. It truly touches my heart that someone far away, thought of me, in spite of all the craziness life has to offer.

When my father was posted in Islamabad, I made sure I wrote to him twice a month. It was the first thing I did when I reached my office. The note itself wasn’t much, just some of my usual office related news or in-house gossip of ‘the driver threatened to quit’ or ‘the maid took yet another day off’, variety. And yes, I waited for his response. And when I did get it, my mother would read the notes again and again, till the next one arrived. Even though we talked on the phone several times, seeing my father’s nearly illegible hand writing always told me he was close by. The letter had personality and warmth that screens and cell phones can never have.

An email is read and deleted. When was the last time you printed an email? A posted letter, on the other hand, is seen, touched and read all over again. Would you rather your thanks be remembered or deleted?

Call me old-fashioned, but I would take a letter, which takes up to three weeks in delivery time over an impersonal email dispensed in less than a minute, any day, hands down!

If you would like to recapture the romance of letter writing, here are some tips to get you started:

Buy nice stationery: Pink hearts and cupids might be a bit much but elegant writing paper with a simple border makes a perfect personal signature. It will make the recipient feel special and you will enjoy writing on something pretty.

Use a proper pen: An old-fashioned fountain pen is still the most elegant writing instrument and will make your words flow across the page but most people probably don’t posses one anymore. Just make sure your pen writes clearly otherwise Khala Naseem will have a hard time making out what you’re saying.

Don’t be formal: Though the act of writing a thank you note or letter seems to hark back to a formal age, the art is to write the way you would speak to the person — use the same tone and language. Reading your note should make the recipient hear your voice in their head.

No net-speak: Even if you are the kind of person who prefers using one alphabet in place of the entire word, please refrain from these chat abbreviations in your written communications. They are plain tacky and show that the writer does not care enough to jot down complete words.