Dear Annu,
I feel sorry for having fired you. I do admit that you did avert some calamity, if not a great calamity. I can now see things through. We cannot blame Akhtar alone for the indicent. I hope you would return soon from the nursing home. I love you all the more for your lie. “A fraction of lie doth ever add pleasure” –says Bacon. I know now that Bacon was not altogether wrong. I hope, however, you will not practise the above maxim of Bacon too often.
Yours in bondage,
A Liar’s Husband.
Dear Zafar,
Please do not take all the blame on yourself. It was certainly not all your fault. I think I am also to blame because it was I who gave you cause for flying into a passion. Lt us bury the hatchet and let it remain buried forever. Hope to see you seen.
Yours lovingly,
Kishwar.
Dear Ghazala,
Next Sunday — next Sunday — next Sunday. I continue to dream of you, hoping you will come home from college next Sunday and steel an opportunity to drop in on our house. But mostly my hopes are being cheated. Life is impossible without you. Come soon. Let me live.
Yours profoundly,
Rauf.
My Dear Annu,
You have been telling me so often that your mother-in-law has not been as nice to you as you had expected of her, that my sisters love you all right but they would not forgive you for faults for which they would readily forgive their own daughters. Here is a thorny problem and I wish to tell you something that you had least expected of a doting husband like me. You would agree that to err is human. You would agree that we too also err before each other and a loving wife has always been forgiving an equally doting husband. Couldn’t you adopt a similar attitude to my mother and sisters? You agree that all sisters love us and they would do anything to make our life happy. Could you not tame their attitude to advantage? The best course is to consult them one by one. Explain to them individually your problems and seek guidance. That would give them an insight into the affairs. They would also have the satisfaction of having been taken into confidence. Once you know their minds and they know yours, the difference would vanish. I hope you would never try to pay them in the same coin. That is likely to disrupt our own private life. Harmony has in keeping peace with all. This is the secret of a marital life. With many affections.
Very loving yours,
Akhlaq Ahmed.
Dear Sabir,
I don’t know how to make a request to you to free me from my engagement with you. May I add that if you give it a good thought you will realize it is in the best interests of both of us. I have noticed that we are both victims of great temperamental contrasts and it will not be easy for either of us to iron out the rough and tough edges of conduct and character. Instead of seeing our marriageship wrecked on rocks, let us take even a lucky ship on the long voyage of life.
Yours sincere friend,
Saira Bano.
Dear Rauf,
Do not think I love you less than you love me. I will not disappoint you any more. I will not be disappointed. We meet on Sunday morning and we shall be together at least until evening.
Yours,
Ghazala.
My dear loving Husband,
Your letter has overwhelmed me. I have read it at least a dozen times and every time it has brought to light a new meaning. Certainly I wish to keep you happy. I am sacrifice anything for the sake of keeping my loving husband happy.
Yours and only yours,
Saira Bono.
Dear Saira,
I will always remember you even if you forget me, always love you even if you hate me — this much of privilege I ask of you and I hope you will not refuse it. If I don’t marry you, I will never marry at all.
Yours as ever and forever,
Sabir.
Dear Ghazala,
“The longest day is in June, they say:
The shortest in December
They did not come to me that way
The shortest I remember
You came a day with me to say
And filled my heart with laughter:
The longest day – you were away —
The very next day after.”
Yours eternally,
Rauf.
Here is a typical advertisement:-
Wanted a pretty bride for a Digamber Sheikh Siddiqi youth aged 21 years, robust health, industious, educated, running expanding business, most respectable and very influential family. Please reply Box 826333. The Times of Pakistan, Islamabad.
