A MYSTERIOUS LETTER

I am a citizen of Reed city In India and have been living as a tenant on the fourth floor of a building named SILVER CROWN for the past six months. The owner of SILVER CROWN is Mr.Gupta an elderly man wḥo occupies the ground floor. Gupta is a very friendly person and mixes freely with all his tenants. One day he mentioned to me “Mr.Rai, I owned an old house on this site which I demolished to build SILVER CROWN 5 years ago. By and large I’ve so far been happy with my tenants.”

 That day when I returned home from office I saw an envelope in my letter box and picked it up. I went up to my apartment when my wife brought me tea. As I sipped it I said “Arati I picked up this letter from our letter box but it isn’t mine. We’ve no Suraj living here. It is from Mombasa in Africa and there is no sender’s address.”

“May be Suraj was the previous tenant. Refer it to Gupta.”

“Let me speak to the postman first.”

Next day I spoke to the postman. I said there was no Suraj at my address when he said “Sir if you so desire I can collect the letter and return it to our post office.”

I then said to my wife “I’m opening it.”

She laughed and said “I hope it isn’t a love letter. My mum told me she had opened a wrongly addressed envelope and read a letter written by a woman telling the husband of her troubles in staying without him and asking him to take her back. She tore up the letter saying it shouldn’t be read by dad!”

“This isn’t a love letter. It is a retyped copy of something conveyed by legal consultant firm Bowmik and Townsend in Mombasa to lawyer Morse in Reed. It is very brief and merely says that the property of Dhanraj who died intestate had 15 claimants but it was settled between only 3. Suraj’s wife inherits the farm. This has been underlined obviously meaning it was valuable.”

Arati said “I know your thinking. You wish you were Suraj.”

I laughed. I said “Arati, I forgot to look at the date. It’s 2008 which means it is 15 years ago.”

“Why do you bother? It has nothing to do with us.”

But I wouldn’t give up. Gupta came to my flat and I showed him the letter. He said “As I recall it there was no tenant on the fourth floor named Suraj. The first tenant of the fourth floor was a Prakash. He had lived here for about a year. After that I don’t know where he went.”

The address of the lawyer in Reed city wasn’t given. I made enquiries at the Advocates Association but found there was no lawyer of that name currently enrolled.

A month later my landlord Gupta came to me and said “I ran into my old friend Isaac and I now vaguely recall that he had known Prakash. He is an old man. I’ve his address and phone number here. You can ask him about Suraj if you feel like it.”

I called Isaac and at his invitation went to his place. Isaac was tall, bald and bearded and looked frail.

I showed him the letter addressed to Suraj. He said “I know something of the background. Suraj was the father of Prakash and he died years ago in Reed. My dad the late Benjamin, also a native of Reed, had worked in Mombasa. He had given me some facts about Suraj. I can only remember sketchy details about the past.”

This is the summary of what Isaac told me:

Long ago someone had advertised in the newspaper “Send rupees ten and we will send you addresses of many who are seeking pen friends.” Suraj had followed the instruction and he had got a few addresses. He sent the following letter to the first person in the list: ‘I obtained your address through an ad which said you are seeking pen friends. I am Suraj 22 years old and own a biscuit factory which is doing well. I want pen friends to share my thoughts and ideas. Please send me your details so that we could continue letter exchange.”

The reply he received was as follows ”I am Dhanraj, industrialist from Mombasa and was quite surprised to receive your letter. I had advertised in a matrimonial column needing a groom for my daughter Mohini who is 18. Someone has lifted my address to exploit it. I am sorry. I have no time to write letters.’

However, soon after, Dhanraj continued the correspondence getting family details of Suraj. There was an exchange of photographs. Dhanraj was a very rich industrialist with an only daughter Mohini. It was said Mohini was a borderline mental case and none who knew her background would come forward to marry her. Suraj, innocent about Mohini’s mental health, married her and went to live in Mombasa. But the couple lived together only briefly. It was said that after an argument with Suraj she had brought out a knife and attacked him leaving him with bleeding injuries. Suraj divorced her. Thereafter he married someone else and had a son Prakash.

Isaac had said “I had told you that none had come forward to marry Mohini. Wrong. There was one man Matthew who had offered to marry her. But he was rejected because he belonged to a different faith. Matthew was a crook and was furious when Suraj married Mohini. Matthew had probably wanted to inherit Dhanraj’s wealth and then possibly dispose of her. Even after Suraj had divorced Mohini, Matthew had hopes she would marry him but she wouldn’t accept him. Matthew once had a contact in Reed and knew the developments in Suraj’s life. He had tried to prevent Suraj’s remarriage by writing letters to the concerned making false allegations but he failed. Suraj lived in harmony with his wife and brought up Prakash. The wife predeceased him. Prakash was an entrepreneur and I was told he had started some kind of export business. But after Suraj passed away I lost touch with Prakash. I understand he has settled somewhere abroad. I was told Matthew is still alive and is living in Mombasa. He is probably 90+.”

I thanked Isaac for the details he had given me.

Later I told my wife about Isaac’s version. I said “Possibly this letter was to remind Suraj that Dhanraj’s prime farm property went to Mohini whom he had divorced. Some incident or possibly some date might have reminded Matthew about Suraj. He had Suraj’s last known address and he could’ve sent the poison pen reminder letter while in a state of dementia. It is plausible.”

My wife nodded.

“Let me destroy this letter.” I did.

END