The Letter

"The Letter" is a touching story of Ali who is all alone and waits for his only daughter's letter for five long years. He receives that letter only at his grave.
Ali was a brilliant hunter who derived pleasure from the terror of the dying birds. But his daughter hated his merciless hunting desire. After his daughter’s marriage, he was left alone. His daughter, Miriam left home with her husband, a soldier in a regiment in Punjab. Having understood the meaning of love and separation, he could no longer enjoy the screams of dying birds. Therefore, he stopped hunting.

Since then, he had been regularly visiting post office in the early morning expecting a letter from his daughter Miriam. However, it did come and he returned home disappointed. The post office staffs often made fun of him. The clerk even called out his name; jokingly even there was no letter for him. Suddenly, for several days, Ali did not come to the post office. Everyone was curious to know the reason behind this.

At last, he did come. But now it was difficult for him even to breathe and there were clear signs of his nearing death. Finally, he met the post master and asked him for Miriam’s letter. The post master scolded Ali because he was very busy. Consequently, Ali called a clerk and gave him five golden guineas and asked him to deliver his letter, if it would come, to his grave. Then he slowly left him and was not seen by any one after that.

One day, the post master’s daughter fell ill and he was anxious to hear from her. He searched for the letter from his daughter from the pile of letters and picked up a letter of the name he expected. It was addressed to “Coachman Ali”. Now he realized about his mistake. He called Lakshmi Das, a clerk and asked him to find out Ali. That day he did not receive his letter and decided that he would hand over Ali’s letter by himself.

In the post office, the next morning he opened the door and saw Ali leaning on a stick with tears in his eyes. His eyes had a light so unearthly that the post master was scared. But, suddenly he disappeared. Lakshmi Das, the clerk was shocked to hear the postmaster call out the name of Coachman Ali who had now been dead for three months. The letter was found near the door. Lakshmi Das tells him about his last meeting with Ali to convince him.

That evening both of them went to place the letter on Ali‘s grave. The post master repented for his attitude and thought that he should have been more sympathetic and helpful towards Ali. He was no longer ill-tempered as he was in the beginning.