Question

Critical analysis of chapter the letter

Answer 1

Dhumaketu’s The Letter is about human emotions and their importance in a person’s life. The central character in this story is Ali who used to be a hunter in his days of youth.  He used to be a skilled hunter and many said that it was because of his brutality on the poor animals that God had punished him and he was leading a lonely life in old age. Whatever be the reason, the poor man was in the habit of visiting the village post office every day. He would start for the post office quite early at the time of day break. He would walk to the post office when the entire town was asleep and the dogs were barking on the path. He would visit the post office like it was his Mecca. Once the wooden arch of the post office was visible, his heart would be filled with joy and he would sit in its veranda.

This had been his routine for years. The clerks would call his name in jest. When Ali would ask for his mail, they would laugh and make a joke of him. For last five years Ali had no news from his only daughter Miriam who had married a soldier and left for Punjab with him. Once his daughter had left him, he felt bitter and had left hunting. However, he had not lost and waited eagerly for any news from his daughter. The post office like a holy mosque became his place of pilgrimage and he sat in a specific corner of the building every day.   Ali waited and waited and the postmen made a game of him.

The clerk talked to the postmaster of Ali’s madness and how he troubled them every day for a piece of mail that was never to arrive. Ali used to see the peons of firms visiting the post office for mail and sometimes he would see the inexpressive face of the post master when the door was thrown open. One day after everyone had left, Ali too got up and saluted the post office. The post master observed this and asked a postman if Ali was mad. The postman said that yes he was and whatever be the weather he does not forget to come to the post office.  The post master worried that who would trouble himself to write to a mad man.