Write a Letter to a friend who has gone abroad.
1st, October, 2010
My Dear Sanjay,
It is almost four months since you left for the U. S. and I haven’t heard from you. Is anything the wrong? Do I conclude that you are completely immersed in the new environments which (if the reports are true) afford a hundred and one diversions, to the extent that you have become oblivious of your ‘former’ world and those inhabiting it?
Sanjay dear, you could have at least acquainted us with the things around you and your place in it. Change is always better, but does it mean that it should be preceded by the change of hearts too?
Things have been as usual here, except that I have brushed up my acquaintance with Sheila on the occasion of my birthday party. It was a very intimate affair with our usual close friends and everything went off quite smoothly. I will be least surprised if the renewed acquaintance with Sheila might develop into what can be said life-long companionship.
Kailash has at last got a break in the newspaper world. He is working as a sub-editor with Hindustan Times— a job where he will fit in best. Already, I am told, he has created a good impression on the Editor.
Bhatia has come out with a new discovery. According to him time factor play’s the governing part in the-prosperity of a nation. What is time factor being beyond my comprehension? However, you should have seen him discoursing, crouched in an armless chair and his arms folded on his knees. I pity the fellow!
Yours sincerely,
Rajiv
Reply.
15th October, 2010
Dear Rajiv,
Your kind letter reached here two days ago. How thrilled I was to hear about the dear and near ones. It was just a pleasant respite from the monotonous routine to dreams of the good old past. Not that this place is without compensations: far from it.
New York and its skyscrapers are not unknown to you. The spectacle is overwhelming; yet so indifferent is the environment that sometimes you feel homesick and long to see the small wayside bungalows with gardens blooming with flowers in front of them. I have not seen the countryside because I do not have sufficient time and money to go in for such a trip. Did I say trip: rather it is a luxury and few fortunate could afford it.
Every morning I have the same schedule ahead : breakfast at six, lunch (which is very light comparing to our meals in India) at 12 noon and dinner at 8 in the evening. Except for these intervals I work in the laboratory from seven in the morning till seven thirty in the evening.
I am very happy to learn that you are hitting off quite well with Sheila and hope that both, of you would be bound in the sacred lock very soon. Please remember me to her.
My congratulations to Kailash on his new vocation. His patience has at last been rewarded and I am sure he will progress in the field steadfastly.
I am afraid if Bhatia continues believing in his musings, he will either be awarded Ph. D. or dispatched to a bedlam. I won’t be surprised in either case.
With love,
Sanjay
