I have always liked to think that there is no generation gap between me and my children. Uninhibited by the difference in our ages, we are able to talk about anything and everything. This is when we are face to face. However, where communication between us is concerned when we are not together, there is not just a gap between our generations, but a great big yawning chasm!

The difference became evident many years ago. Sunday then used to be a very special day for us. It was the day when we could expect a call from our sons who were both abroad. When the phone rang, we would rush to it, and sure enough it would be one of them.

“What’s all the news?” I would ask.

“Nothing much” would be the invariable reply. “What’s happening at your end?”

“Nothing at all,” I would reply, while I racked my brains for some little bit of news to give them. Seeing my husband hovering in the background, I would chicken out and hand the phone over to him.

Not that he was any better at handling the problem. There would be a repeat of pointless exchanges and the call would end. Cramping our style was our awareness of the meter running. Though the call was being made by one of our dollar-earning sons, who insisted that the cost was immaterial, our conditioning was such that it prevented us from coming to terms with what seemed to be an unwarranted extravagance. The call over, we would bask for a while in the warmth of hearing our sons’ voices. But soon, this would be replaced by frustration at how little we had communicated.

The young today believe in instant communication. Landline and mobile telephones, SMS messaging, faxes have all become a regular part of their lives. They communicate with ease and a happy disregard for the bill at the end of the month. But I sometimes wonder whether by indulging in these high-tech marvels they are not missing out on the virtues of a good old-fashioned letter.

In the good old days, we would receive and write letters. There would be pages of news, snippets of gossip, the odd joke or two. Best of all, the letters could be read and re-read, the reader gleaning from them more than just a recital of events.

However, if I have resisted most of today’s miracles of communication, I have to confess to succumbing to one of them. And this is e-mail. Though I have all but forgotten what a postage stamp looks like, I justify this weakness by saying that an e-mail is just like a letter, except that it moves faster. But try telling that to my mother. For her, the difference between a letter and an E-mail message is what represents the generation gap between her and me!