LifePost

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“If only mum or dad, or grandma or grandpa could write down their life story…” John Hockney

How many of us have wished our Grandparents or parents had written down their stories and experiences for us before it was too late? How many of us have wished we could hold onto something, something they have seen and lived through and something we could relive again?

‘Blog for me’ experiment

Living apart, in two different continents brings along with it two unwanted elements, distance and cost of keeping in regular touch. Now, you may tell me that we live in the world of fast emails and social networking sites. Afterall, they were created to negate the distance between two individuals. It’s easy enough for us who have grown up in this technology inclusive world but what about those who want to share their stories with as many people as possible in a fast timely manner? Blogging definitely helps achieve the first aspect but what about the latter?

I have, over a period of time received postcards and letters from my Grandparents back home in India and I have decided to blog their stories and thoughts for them so that they may reach all my cousins living abroad and the public by and large.

Words of wisdom and experience spoken by them would contribute towards living history, are valuable to me and I think that if they are valuable to me, they maybe for someone else as well. These must be documented and archived for the future generations.

As part of the experiment, I wish to use the blog as the media for sharing the stories and life experiences of the elderly. The stories that they want to share with lots of friends and families but don’t know how to. Everyone has a story to tell and they maybe different depending on family background, attitudes, cultural backgrounds and personal experiences but they are special and valuable nonetheless. The stories may be humorous, based on struggle or pride of accomplishment and there is always so much to learn from.

We often collect a large number of letters and postcards that get lost, misplaced or tear away as the years go by. I wish to give these stories and experiences a voice and preserve them for the years to come.

If you have an elderly friend or relative who would like to share their stories, please do get in touch with me. They could send me a letter or a postcard and I would be more than happy to archive this and present it to a larger audience. The web.