Dear Rakesh

Since the last five years we have not seen or heard each other. Maybe you have forgotten me but I am that little Kavi from the Gameshwar Village, you visited five years ago on your trip to your uncle’s house. I have a very exciting news, I would like to share with you.

The panchayat has established a new tube well in our village. I hope you have not forgotten all the women going to the river in the outskirts of the village to collect water for the whole family. Nowadays they do not have to go there; it’s all because of the tube well. It’s a fantastic thing. You only have to press the handle on one end and water rushes out of the other. Even children can use it.

Every day we see a crowd of women gathering in front of the tube well and taking out water in their large vessels. Now even mother gets some time to rest after bringing in those heavy vessels. I know maybe you have them already in your locality but it is very special to me as it’s all new for us.

How are you in the city? Hope you are pursuing your studies. I left school the last year. I came to class six and that was all. Now I help my father at the field. I know the people of the cities are so learned but in the villages it is the maximum limit till which you can study. However though I liked studying, I do not complain as I know that now I have to help my father at work.

I hope you know of the drought last year. The entire crop was destroyed and father was much tensed to pay back the loan from the moneylender. It is a very huge sum, five thousand rupees which father had to pay back at the end of the cropping season.

Even mother was not employed as the landowner’s crops were also destroyed. The cow did not give adequate milk owing to the lack of food and so it was a condition of peril for us. Last year, as every four years we used to get a pair of new clothes but owing to the harsh conditions, we did not get any new cloth. Acquiring food for the family was quite difficult for father as mother said. I have seen her sleep hungry as there was not enough rice to sustain us.

Father went to the town in search of some job and those days were very difficult for us. While often mother survived on the boiled leaves, sometimes we both had little to eat.

Finally the year ended and the smell of rain falling on the warm land made our hearts filled with delight. Father returned and it was a new year for us. This year the climate has been kind towards us and gifted us with timely rain.

You remembered how one day we played in the ground in the south of the village when we got drenched by the torrential downpour and the streets got swampy. That day we had to return as uncle would have been angry to see you wet and slipped on the swampy street but otherwise we enjoy such weather. Playing in the rain is such a fantasy.

You people in the cities do not have to face such difficulties right? As you told me that roads are made such that they remain the same in the rain.

This year the old man who lived beside your uncle’s house died. He was suffering from a considerable number of days and last month one Sunday he died. It was raining heavily that day thus he had to be burnt the next day.

At the end of this year like every other year a fair is to be held at the north western side of the Ramu uncle’s house. But this year it will be special since many people will come as they have started continuous ferry arrangement on the river. I hope you would also come.
Give my regards to uncle and aunt. I hope to see you once again at Gameshwar Village.
Yours lovingly
Kavi

Many months passed. Not a single reply was sent from Rakesh.  Kavi felt that he had forgotten him and thus ignored his letter. He had heard about people of the cities from his parents but he trusted Rakesh as someone different. But at the edge of his tolerance, the postman came with a letter from the city. The everyday routine of Kavi’s eager visit to the post office met with a happy ending.

Kavi opened the letter with a mixture of fear and excitement and happily flung the envelope on seing the name of sender as Rakesh. He quickly opened the letter to see the contents.

82/A Lake Road
Kolkata-700150

I received your letter and it was quite nice to see people still writing letters. In the cities, people no longer write letters. I am sending you this with quite difficulty but do not further send me such a letter. I do not remember of your village as much but now I have grown up and I have better work to do.
I got to know about your difficulties but I cannot come as I am too busy with my academic schedule and I shall prefer to go somewhere else on a holiday.
Yours faithfully
Rakesh

The piece of fine white paper dropped from his hand as two drops of tear trickled down his cheeks insulting the magnificence of the letter and he whispered something on his own “Age does make a difference to some”.