Shayahadri Hotel, Mahabaleshwar, Pune

3rd January

Dear Ajit,

I couldn't write to you after coming to Bombay. You know how difficult I find to write letters. You are a writer so you are capable of writing long letters. But where will I get your imagination? I only deal with truth!

Still, I am sitting to write this long letter to you. You will understand why I am undertaking this Herculean task, as soon as you come to the end of this letter. I am writing this letter in candlelight from the hotel room of Mahabaleshwar, a hill station. It is cold and dark outside. I am sitting in a closed room but I am unable still to avoid the cold and the dark. The wick of the candle is flickering. There are long shadows moving silently on the walls. Indeed, a ghostly atmosphere! I have always tried to avoid dealing with the supernatural in my life — but — it is becoming difficult for me to keep it out of my business here. As I am unable to relate a story as you do, I have first written what I should have related later — I must begin from the very beginning!

I took about four days to finish my work in Bombay. I had decided to return on the same day. But I had got acquainted with a police bigwig — Mr. Vishu Vinayak Apte — Maharashtrian. He said, "How can you go back from Bombay without seeing Poona?"

I asked, "What is there to see in Poona?"

He said, "Poona was the Great Shivaji's capital. There is lots to see there — Singh Garh, Bhabani Mandir, etc."

I thought that I might not come to this part of India again — so why miss the chance of seeing places.

I said, "Alright, I am interested."

We started out in Apte's car. The road from Bombay to Poona is beautiful. It weaved in and out of the Shayahadri Mountain Ranges of the Western Ghats. It is difficult for a person like me to describe the scenic beauty of these parts — on one side are the mountain ranges, on the other — deep gorges. You would have written an epic on the beauty of this place.

I was a guest in Apte's house in Poona. There was no dearth of hospitality. Poona is colder than Bombay. But this cold does not make one feel numb, instead one feels energetic.

I stayed in Poona for three days and saw all that had to be seen. Then Apte said, "How can you leave Poona without seeing Mahabaleshwar?"

I said, "What's that?"

Apte laughed and said, "It's a place. It is the best hill station of Maharastra — just as your Darjeeling. It's two thousand feet higher than Poona. Everyone from Bombay goes for a holiday in Mahabaleshwar during the summers."

"But no one goes during the winters. How cold is it?"

"It's like the weather in England — let's go —