What is the summary of the lesson The Letter
Answers
Dhumaketu can be glorified as a prolific writer who has given a very vivid and wonderful description of the village and its people, alongwith the nature and loneliness of human beings. The story talks about coachman Ali who could not bear the pain of separation when his daughter left after her marriage. His loneliness gained momentum with passage of time in which he desperately waited for a letter from his daughter Miriam.
The story begins with a very vivid description of how silent the village was “wrapped in deathly silence.” The description of it being early dawn and people fast asleep in a winter morning is very well portrayed through various phrases such as “early dawn stars”, “distant steps”, “occasional bark of dogs”, etc. The old man goes to the post-office everyday occupying a particular seat with a fixed purpose- awaiting a letter from his daughter. People found him to be a lunatic and laughed at him.
In the following lines of the story we find Ali missing from the post-office for several as he falls sick terribly. At last, he reaches the place one day and asks for the much awaited letter. The postmaster gets infuriated and chases him away. Although this angers Ali, he doesn 't lose his temper. He gives five golden guineas to Lakshmi Das to forward his letter to his grave as he considers that very day to be his last day of survival. He was never seen again.
The turning point in the story comes when trouble knocks on the postmaster 's door in the form of a news about his own daughter who lay sick in another town. He was anxious about receiving a letter from her, discussing her health. He searched in the pile of letters and to his shock, found Ali 's much awaited letter from his daughter. His anger disappeared in a whiff and he sent for the postman to send it to Ali right away.
The story hear turns quite heart-rendering when the postmaster feels empathy towards Ali. He is grieved because of his condition and is filled with sympathy for the old man. He then personally went to the post office to give Ali the letter. To his amazement, Ali received the letter with gratefulness and tears in his eyes. The postmaster shrunk back when he noticed a light of kindness when Ali received the letter.
The postmaster narrated this entire story to the postman. When asked on whom he saw the postmaster said he saw Ali. This is when he came to know that Ali had died three months before. Here, the bewildered postmaster found at the doorway that Ali had disappeared. Imagination had deceived him. That evening he went to Ali 's grave and laid the letter there.
Empathy makes us understand each other and build strong relationships. One can feel the anxiety of other when one finds himself in that particular situation. In the end of the story, tortured with remorse and grief, the postmaster waits for news from her ill daughter, passing a restless night besie the charcoal sigri.
‘The Letter’ written by Dhumaketu is the story of an old coachman whose daughter Miriam, married a soldier and went to live with him. Ali missed her and gave up hunting after he realized the pain of separation. Five years passed, but he kept on waiting for Miriam’s letter. He went to the nearby post-office daily in the hope of getting a letter from her. But no letter ever came for him. Rather the clerks and other officials made fun of him. They would call out his name in mischief and when Ali would go to the window they would laugh at him.
Ali used to feel bad about all this. The postman started taking him to be a mad man. But Ali, not bothering about all this, returned every day to the post-office just to hear a word from his daughter or about her well-being. Towards the end of his life, his ill-health prevented him from visiting the post-office daily.
He couldn’t breathe properly. So, one day, when he visited the post-office, he told one of the clerks to do him a favour by forwarding Miriam’s letter to his grave. He offered him five golden guineas for this. There were tears in his eyes. He was never seen after that and then nobody bothered to enquire about him. Time passed.
One day, the postmaster had a problem. His daughter, who lived in another town, fell ill. He anxiously waited for news of her but there was none. It was at this moment that he was reminded of Ali and his anxiety of getting a letter from his daughter.
This realisation made him truly repentant of his rude behaviour towards Ali. Meanwhile there was a letter addressed to Ali. He decided to hand over the letter to Ali himself at 4 o’clock. That night the postmaster could not sleep. At five, he heard a soft knock at the door. He opened the door only to find Ali standing there.
The postmaster handed him the letter. Ali immediately disappeared. Just then, Lakshmi Das, the clerk who had taken the guineas from Ali, came there and saw the postmaster talking to someone. He was astonished to hear Ali’s name and so informed the postmaster that Ali had died three months ago.
The postmaster could not believe this. That evening, both of them went to visit coachman Ali’s grave and placed the letter there. Now, the postmaster realised the value of human feelings and emotions in terms of letters and envelopes. Now, they were not mere postcards but much more than what anyone could realize.