පිළිතුරු ලිපිය - VII - Reply Letter - VII

My dear Syed,

    Thank you very much for your letter from the seaside. It was very interesting to hear of your swimming in the rays of the rising sun. I shall expect to see you looking fresh and sunburnt when we meet again.

    Here it is very different. We are up on the mountain tops, in the wind and the clouds. We cannot walk about without clothes, as you do on the sea-beach. We cannot wear the white clothes we do at Anantapura; we have to put on warm underclothing as well as woollen coats and trousers. But the cold winds have taken all our tiredness away, and we can walk for miles and miles.

    You know it was Radha’s father who invited me. He is such an interesting man to talk to, as he knows every part of India. For thirty years he has spent every holiday
in travel. He has been as far as Chaman, Lundi Kotal, Chitral, Baltit, Kathmandu, Kalimpong, Dibrugarh, Manipur, Quilon, Rameshvar, Tranquebar, Diu and Bikaner. If you look up these places on a map you will see that he could not have gone much further without leaving India. And what is more, he is proud of never having been even a day later in returning to his office. He knows all the great pilgrim centres, and the best rest-houses, and hundreds of stories of heroes, and giants, and animals. Someday I will take you to his house to see him and listen to him.

    Well, we shall meet in three weeks, Inshallah!