No.7G, Rainbow Colony,
MG Road, Dharavi,
Mumbai – 17.
28/12/2011.
My dear Jinnah,
Ages
have passed since you wrote to me last. I can’t figure out what you are so busy
with, Incidentally, you must have finished reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace long ago.
You must
have read Charles Lamb’s delightful essay, ‘ The Two Races of Men.’ The two races of men are the borrower and
lenders. Having dealt with the borrowers
and lenders of money and
complimented the borrowers as the noble r race, he goes on to speak of the borrowers
and lenders of books. Among the greatest borrowers of books was Coleridge who
often forgot to return the books he
borrowed; but whenever he returned them, he did so with interest, that is, with
valuable comments scribbed in the margin.
You seem
to belong to the greater race of borrowers. If, like Coleridge, you are going
to return my book enriched with your
marginal notes, you may keep it a few weeks longer ; otherwise kindly return it
to me as early as possible.
May I
remind you that you owe me not only a book but a letter written in your
inimitable style ?
Yours loving,
Kamal.
