The morning sun cast long shadows across the dusty main road of Chandanpur as Arjun arranged his small wooden table under the ancient banyan tree. For three years now, this had been his office, a simple setup with his father’s old typewriter, a stack of paper, and a hand-painted sign that read “Letters Written, Hearts Expressed” in both Hindi and English.
At twenty-five, Arjun had returned to his hometown after completing his English literature degree in Delhi, much to his parents’ bewilderment. While his classmates chased corporate jobs in gleaming offices, he had chosen to be Chandanpur’s only professional letter writer, helping the townspeople articulate feelings they struggled to express.
“Arjun beta!” called out Mrs Sharma, hurrying toward him with her usual urgency. “I need a letter for my son in Pune. He never calls, never writes. Maybe if you write something beautiful, he’ll remember his old mother.”
As Arjun began typing Mrs Sharma’s heartfelt words, he noticed a young woman standing hesitantly near the tea stall across the road. She had been there yesterday too, watching him work, but never approaching. Today, she wore a simple blue salwar kameez, her dupatta partially covering her long, dark hair. There was something about the way she observed him, curious yet cautious, that made his fingers stumble on the typewriter keys.
After Mrs Sharma left with her letter, clutching it like a precious treasure, the young woman finally approached. She moved with quiet grace, her eyes darting nervously around the small crowd that always seemed to gather near the letter writer’s tree.
“Are you… Do you write all kinds of letters?” she asked softly, her voice barely audible above the morning sounds of Chandanpur: bicycle bells, auto-rickshaw horns, and the distant call of vegetable vendors.
“Yes, miss. Love letters, complaint letters, job applications, and family correspondence. What do you need?”
She glanced around nervously before leaning closer. “A love letter,” she whispered, her cheeks flushing pink. “But it’s… complicated.”
Arjun had written dozens of love letters, but something in her voice made him pay closer attention. “All love is complicated,” he said gently. “Please, sit.”
She perched on the edge of the plastic chair, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her dupatta. “My name is Meera. I… I work at the government school here. I teach the younger children.”
Arjun nodded encouragingly. He had heard about the new teacher who had arrived from Jaipur six months ago, though he had never seen her before these past two days.
“There’s someone I… someone I care about very much,” Meera continued, her voice growing even softer. “But I don’t think he knows I exist. He’s educated, thoughtful, and kind to everyone. And I’m just…” She trailed off, looking down at her hands.
“You’re just what?” Arjun prompted gently.
“I’m just a small-town teacher now. What could someone like him see in me?”
Arjun felt an unexpected pang in his chest. “I’m sure you’re underestimating yourself. Tell me about him. What makes him special?”
Meera’s face lit up despite her nervousness. “He’s… he chose to come back to help his community instead of chasing money in the big city. Every day, I see him under that banyan tree, listening to people’s problems, finding just the right words to help them express their deepest feelings. He treats everyone with such respect, from Mrs Sharma to little Ravi, who comes to dictate letters to his grandfather in the village.”
Arjun’s heart began to race, but he kept his expression neutral. “He sounds like a good man.”
“He is. But how do you tell someone that you’ve been watching them, admiring them, maybe even… loving them from afar? How do you write a letter to someone who writes letters for a living? What words could I possibly use that he hasn’t already heard?”
The irony wasn’t lost on Arjun, but he found himself genuinely wanting to help her, even as his own feelings grew complicated. “The most beautiful words are often the simplest ones. What would you want to say to him if you weren’t afraid?”
Meera closed her eyes for a moment, gathering courage. “I would tell him that he made me believe in the power of words again. Watching him help people reconnect with their loved ones made me want to reconnect with my own heart. I would tell him that in a world that often feels rushed and careless, he creates moments of tenderness every single day.”
As she spoke, Arjun began typing, but he found himself typing his own thoughts as much as her words.
“I would tell him,” Meera continued, her voice growing stronger, “that he doesn’t need to impress anyone with big gestures or grand plans. The way he patiently listens to Mrs Sharma’s stories, the way he helps young Ravi with his spelling, and the way he treats his work as sacred—that’s what makes him extraordinary.”
Arjun stopped typing and looked at her. “Meera,” he said quietly, “are you talking about me?”
She froze, her eyes widening in panic. For a moment, she looked like she might run, but then she slowly nodded, her face burning with embarrassment.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know this is strange, hiring you to write a love letter to yourself. I just… I couldn’t find the courage to speak to you directly, and I thought maybe if I heard myself saying the words out loud to you, I could—”
“Meera,” Arjun interrupted gently, moving his chair closer to hers. “Can I tell you something?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice.
“For two days, I’ve watched you watching me, and I kept hoping you’d find the courage to come over. Not for business, but because… because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to introduce myself without seeming forward.”
“Really?” The word escaped her lips like a breath of hope.
“Really. And everything you just said about me? You’ve made me see myself differently. I came back to Chandanpur because I couldn’t find my place in the big city, and sometimes I wonder if I’m just hiding here, playing it safe. But you make it sound like I’m doing something meaningful.”
Meera smiled for the first time since approaching his table. “You are. You help people find their voices. You helped me find mine.”
Arjun looked down at the half-typed letter in his typewriter, then back at her. “So what happens to this letter?”
“Maybe,” Meera said shyly, “you could finish it and give it to yourself later. As a reminder of how we met.”
“Or,” Arjun said, gently taking her hand, “maybe we could write a different story together. Not in letters, but in days and months and years.”
The banyan tree had witnessed countless stories over the decades, but as Arjun and Meera sat there, hands intertwined, talking softly while the morning grew warmer around them, it seemed to shelter something particularly precious.
“Arjun bhai!” Young Ravi came running up, clutching a crumpled piece of paper. “I need help writing to my friend in Delhi! And who is this aunty? Is she going to help write letters, too?”
Meera laughed, a sound like silver bells, and Arjun realised he had never heard anything so beautiful.
“This is Meera,” he said, squeezing her hand gently. “She’s a teacher, and she’s… well, she’s going to be around here quite a lot.”
“Are you going to get married?” Ravi asked with the straightforward curiosity of childhood.
Arjun and Meera looked at each other, both blushing, both smiling.
“Ravi,” Arjun said, settling the boy at the table and feeding a fresh sheet of paper into the typewriter, “let me teach you something important. The best love stories don’t start with the ending. They start with two people who are brave enough to say hello.”
As he began typing Ravi’s letter, Meera moved her chair closer, ostensibly to help with the letter but really just to be near him. The morning sun climbed higher, the town came alive around them, and under the ancient banyan tree, the letter writer of Chandanpur began the most important story he would ever write, not with words on paper, but with the quiet courage of two hearts learning to speak the same language.
Later that evening, as the shadows grew long and the day’s last customer departed with a carefully crafted letter of apology to his wife, Arjun finally finished the letter Meera had asked him to write. He handed it to her with a smile.
“For your files,” he said. “The letter that brought us together.”
Meera read it quietly, tears gathering in her eyes. At the bottom, Arjun had added his own postscript: “Reply: Yes, I see you. Yes, I care. Yes, let’s find out what this story becomes. -A.”
In a small town like Chandanpur, news travelled fast. By next week, everyone would know about the letter writer and the pretty teacher who had fallen in love under the banyan tree. Mrs Sharma claimed she had seen it coming all along, and little Ravi told everyone who would listen about how he had helped them realise they wanted to get married.
But for Arjun and Meera, the real magic wasn’t in the town’s gossip or speculation. It was in the quiet moments between letters, when they would share tea and stories and dreams. It was in discovering that love, like the best letters, doesn’t need elaborate language; it just needs truth, courage, and someone willing to listen.
And sometimes, if you’re very lucky, it needs a banyan tree, a typewriter, and the simple bravery to ask someone to help you find the words your heart has been trying to say all along.
Memories and Such 