Invitation to Visit a Hill-Station
Darjeeling
16 March, 19…
Dear Sally
I hope my letter finds you fully recovered from your depression. Such black moods have visited many great people in history. It is said that the founder of the East India Company and of the British Empire in India committed suicide in one of his bouts of depression.
We must learn to fight such states of mind because they are unhealthy and the aim of life is to be happy always under any circumstance God places us in.
Your summer vacations are beginning next months. I extend an invitation to you to visit/ Darjeeling, Queen of Hill-Stations in India. Your abode during your stay shall be my humble cottage in the middle of our tea-garden. In summer, Darjeeling is a paradise. The hills are carpeted with wild flowers and greenery. We could go trekking to Tiger Hill and see the beautiful sunset. The youth festival will begin in mid-April and so you are in for real fun. Remo Fernandes is coming to sing and so is Apache Indian visiting‘
Let me know when you fix your dates for the journey. I shall come to pick you up at Jalpaiguri from where we shall get on to the toy train. What fun it is as the train winds around the hills.
So cheer up and no more of those thoughts that take away that beautiful smile of yours.
Yours affectionately,
Ifran
Kuvempu Tea Gardens,
Darjeeling, W.Bengal.
Acceptance
Calcutta
23 March, 19…
Dear Ifran,
I just received your kind letter and it filled me with joie de vivre (the joy of living)! My mind is filled with a vision of snow-capped mountains behind a green valley and the sweet smell of tea-bushes all around.
I’ve already booked my train ticket and shall be at Jalpaiguri on 3 April, 19… at 6 a.m. Do be there dear Ifran to receive me.
Your invitation ‘reminds me of lines from John Keats:
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever
It’s loveliness increases
It never ends into nothingness”
Convey my regards to your parents.
Yours sincerely,
Sally
Sally Bannerji,
D 130 Chowringhee Street,
Calcutta.
