Are we at lack of better words?

I hope this email finds you well.

- “Ugh no! That’s too generic.”

I trust you’re having a good day!

- “What if they are having a bad day and I’m adding fuel to the flame?”

Hello and welcome! I hope you're having a fantastic day filled with good things.

- “You know what? Nevermind!”

How many times do you find it difficult to say or write something?

Maybe a formal email, or the first message to a friend you haven’t spoken to in such a long time?

How many times do you think of a sentence in your head and ask yourself - “Hmm… Kaddu ko English mai kya kehte hai?”

What’s funny is how many times you know exactly what word you’re going for, it’s at the tip of your tongue, it’s right there - you’re about to say it, IT’S LITERALLY ONE OF THE EASIEST WORDS… UMMMMMM…. Nah, never mind! Let’s just Google it.

You see, forgetting words is natural. Most times, we don’t even pay much attention to it.

But the real challenge is when we get down to writing things.

A week back, one of my neighbors rang the doorbell. He had a hardcover blank page notebook in his left hand. After about 20 seconds of small talk, he mentioned that he wants to apply for a passport. The process requires him to get a verification letter from his neighbors as well about his social behavior so that he could submit it to a local police station.

Bottom line - I had to write a letter.

Pretty easy!

‘Seems easy, I’ve been writing emails and content all my life. I didn’t even think much about it because hey, it’s just a letter. You can Google the content and jot it down exactly how everybody else does.’

Two hours later, I had to go somewhere. As I was about to leave, I realized I had to write this letter first. And after postponing it till the last minute, I finally decided to write it.

To,

[Residence] Police Station,

Bengaluru, Karnataka

Subject: Review application for Mr xxx

Review application? That doesn’t sound right.

Performance review? No, he’s not interning anywhere.

Personality review? Okay, never mind!

Naturally, I’d turn to Google at this point.

“But what do I search for”?

“Review letter for a neighbor”?

Doesn’t make sense.

All I could finally come up with was - neighbor passport review letter.

Thankfully, there was enough for me to work with. I found a letter sample that I improvised a little (subtle content writer flex) and ended up writing a proper recommendation letter - even though I still ran into dead ends while writing the letter.

So what was the subject finally?

“Review letter for Mr xxx for Passport”

12 year old Taha would laugh at me.

Anyway, there’s no major takeaway here other than the fact that there are instances when you know you can write a simple letter or a full-fledged email and when it actually comes to it, you might end up spending an entire day figuring out what kinds of greetings you want to write.

If you've ever found yourself staring blankly at your screen, desperately trying to come up with the perfect words to say, you're not alone. Just remember, when in doubt, hit that trusty 'delete' button and start over. Or better yet, if you’re speaking, say something funny so that people don’t understand what you’re talking about and think that they didn’t get the joke.

Till next time.

See ya!