I usually find plays difficult reading. One has to keep track of who’s who, and the lack of connecting sentences and descriptions make the reading seem like hard work. But, once in a while you come across a story that’s so powerful and moving, that it stays with you a long time. The writer doesn’t use high-flying vocabulary, flowery language or long sentences. But the idea just grabs you, and makes you ponder over the essence of human nature, and the meaning of right and wrong.

All My Sons is a play written by Arthur Miller, an American playwright. Set in 1947 USA, it is based upon a true story that resonates even today. The power of a great story doesn’t diminish over time. All My Sons has five main characters, and a few more supporting cast. Most of the play takes place in a suburban American home across a 24-hour time frame. It is a compelling tale carried forward through the dialogue and interaction between these characters.

The best way to read a play is to literally ‘read’ it out loud. Assign one character to each of your friends and have a real, live reading. That makes the story come alive.

Plays are meant to be experienced, not read. The last time I read/studied a play was in high school. However, All My Sons is an exception. There are also two movie adaptations of it, and watching them before reading the play may enhance it. If there’s just one play you want to read in your life, let it be this one.

I remember all through middle school, that’s Class VI, VII, and VIII the emphasis our English teachers laid on improving our handwriting. Twice a week, we had to submit one page of writing — the piece of writing could be from a newspaper, magazine, book, or our own textbooks. The subject matter was not important — what was important was that we wrote. The teachers were misers when it came to marks. I remember moving from scores of 4 ¾ to 7 ½ in those three years. I loved to write letters to friends over the years (that were full of spelling errors) but I got quite a few compliments for my handwriting back then. Now, I think ten times before I write out a cheque!

Somewhere after my Class X exams, I attended typewriting classes. I found it strange that I had to repeatedly punch asdfgf;lkjhj and then later qwertrpoiuyu and so on. I never could imagine why on earth those letters were placed that way anyway — I mean, how could anyone ever write sensibly with those letters thrown about that way? I especially hated the fact that the ‘a’ was always lighter on the typewritten sheet (since it was typed with the little finger of the left hand). I always tried my best to give the ‘a’ a stronger stroke. And the noise! Oh God! The noise a typewriter is capable of making! One had to hit the keys hard to produce a good impression on paper. And the noise each time one reached the end of the line (for a carriage return)! I wonder now, how it was ever possible to actually think while typewriting. Maybe it was not! As I graduated to typing sentences, the rule was to have once space after a comma and two spaces after a full stop. There was also no distinction between an en dash and an em dash. So usually, we had to punch the hyphen twice to get a near approximation. Imagine the day when I got to typing ‘The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs’! In any case, typewriting and I never really were best of friends. I preferred to put pen to paper any day.

Then came the cyber revolution. I resisted this move to Word processors for quite a while. Initially, I could never think and type on the keyboard or even type and think for that matter. I drafted the stuff on paper and then moved it to a ‘soft’ copy. Slowly, painfully slowly, I was able to think and type and type and think. It was a whole new world of the backspace and the delete. And best of all, one did not have to punch the keys as hard like on the good old typewriter. Ah! I was actually beginning to enjoy technology! I marveled at the using the ^B to make words and sentences bold and how easy it was to move text around. These days we have hundreds of fonts to choose from and with a click of a few buttons here and there we can improve the look and feel of any seemingly dull document. I admit I no longer am a fan of putting pen to paper. My handwriting sucks!