Pankhuri Aggarwal
Gone are the days when one would with great enthusiasm go to market to buy a greeting card. He would hope from one shop to another to select a card which strike a card with us heart and express the sentiments as harboured for the “Dear One’
Greeting cards can on no occasion be a piece of paper but has always been the best way of bestowing ones feelings to the other with feelings of one person carved in it. With the revolutionized world as it is said time and tide wait for none. Now a days the technology is enthralling the whole world so snugly that none but all are under its influence whether old or young. There was time when greeting cards expressed warmth and fuzzy feelings in people’s hearts. Fashion is changing every mini second with the changing culture and thinking of people. Traditionally, greeting cards has always been a medium to express love, affection, care and loads of emotions to friends and family. These cards have always provided a gentle and the simplest way of expressing feelings to someone special in the most appropriate way.
But the modern world seems to lose that enthusiasm behind the fun of buying greeting cards. With the advent of knowhow there are scads of modes through which greetings can be send like SMS, an e-mail message, e-card, fax or even through telephone calls. But the feelings behind such messages are not expressed perfectly as done by the cards. Itwould be very interesting to know that the custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back from fifteenth century when the Chinese first exchanged messages of goodwill to celebrate the New Year. Later Egyptians and Europeans also started exchanging messages. The first greeting card was on a papyrus scrolls. Later in 1850’s the greeting card has been transformed into handmade paper cards and only rich people could afford them. In 1980’s the greeting card market shouted like a bright star in the sky and from there the trend of greeting cards spread all over the world. Ananiya Kapoor, a twelfth class student said, “As far as I am concerned now a days the relevance of sending greeting cards has finished. The old greeting cards are just used for navigating right kind of text to be sent to other on a particular occasion from our mobiles”. She further added, “Writing a greeting message is really difficult and especially when message has to be send to a friend, co-worker, wife or husband. Sometimes we end up staring at the blank spot on the mobile nothing to write. Using the old greeting card message and molding it accordingly can help us write a best message we want for our beloved and this is what the relevance of greeting cards are left for”.
Another medical student, Muskan Anand said, “Lack of proper time and money as inflation are eating are heads is what is eating up our relations and we are ignoring them by just sending greetings over phone or through e-mails”. She further adds, “Technology has converted our world into a global village at large andthrough social networking sites like Facebook and twitter, the trend of sending greeting cards seems to perish with time. People tend to prefer it as it is the fastest and the cheapest way of expressing oneself”. Whatever may be said but greeting cards have a special space in our hearts as we know that someone special has chosen it especially for us no matter how tiny it is. It always flatters our heart towards that person. According to Praveen Gupta, an owner of archies cards said, “My sale has been affected by the new technology. Although not that must but still the amount of profit I use to have around three to four years back was much more as compared to today’s sale and profit”.
He further added, “According to me the basic reason why people especially the youngsters are not opting to buy greeting cards are firstly, it is a time consuming process. In such fast moving environment no one has time to even shed ten minutes of their busy schedule. Secondly, the cost and thirdly or the most significant one is the alternatives available. All the emotions can be summarized in one tiny text message or an e-mail”. Another cards shopkeeper Kishor Gupta said, “We know that technology has moved on and so are we moving with it. We are trying to bring innovation in our greeting cards like we have photo greeting cards which are gaining lot of popularity. In which space is provided in which you can attach photos just like a frame. Another alternative are the personalized greeting card in which you can choose your own message and get it printed right away, musical greeting cards, pop-up cards and what not”. He further added, “Old will always remain gold that is what ever the technology may do but the feel of greeting cards can never be destroyed. It can never wither away from our culture and from our society”. Greeting cards are so resourceful they are made for every occasion whether it’s a birthday card, or a sister card, its available for every occasion. Cards plays a dynamic role when we send it to people who least expects it. It can create magical waves and can bring hearts much more closer to each other. Just a small and simple greeting card can be the best and the most precious gift for someone. The charm of a paper greeting is above all the modes of greetings and the joy of receiving a paper greeting card is much more than the joy of sending one through other technological alternatives available.
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