An old man's daily vigil at the post office, waiting for word from his daughter
Before dawn each day, an elderly man named Ali walks quietly through the sleeping town, drawing his worn cloak close against the cold, until he reaches the post office and settles hopefully onto its veranda, waiting for the day's letters to be sorted and called out. Ali once lived a very different life as a skilled hunter, well known throughout the area and nicknamed "Shikari Ali." After losing his wife, he devoted himself entirely to raising his only daughter, Marium, who grew up, married a soldier, and moved away to a distant post — and it has now been five long years since Ali last received any word from her.
Since then, the post office has become the center of Ali's entire existence. His old hunting instincts have faded into a new, singular obsession: arriving early every single morning, hoping against hope that today will finally bring a letter bearing his daughter's handwriting. Over time, postal workers and postmen have come to recognise him as a familiar, if slightly pitiable, fixture of the building — and some grow cruel in their familiarity, mockingly calling out his name just to watch him leap up eagerly, only to laugh as he walks away empty-handed once again. Despite the mockery and endless disappointment, Ali's patience and faith never seem to waver.
When a new, younger postmaster arrives who does not yet know Ali's story, he finds the old man's daily presence irritating and dismisses him as a nuisance, unmoved by the clerk's attempts to explain his sad situation. In his desperation to be taken seriously, Ali even tries offering the postmaster a small hoard of gold coins — his own life savings — pleading for special attention to be paid to finding his daughter's letter, only to be firmly and impatiently turned away.
That night, however, the new postmaster finds himself unable to stop thinking about Ali's situation, and slowly comes to feel real sympathy for the old man's suffering. He resolves that the next time Ali comes to the post office, he will personally make sure to look properly for any letter that might have arrived for him. True to his word, when a soft knock comes at his door the following afternoon, the postmaster rises eagerly, certain it must be Ali at last — but when he opens the door, he is startled by an old man standing silently outside, his eyes holding a strange, otherworldly light. Unsettled, the postmaster calls out to him, only for the figure to vanish without a word.
Turning to his clerk in confusion, the postmaster explains that he has just been speaking with Ali — only to be met with a chilling reply: Shikari Ali had, in fact, died some time before. The story closes on this unresolved, haunting note, leaving readers to wonder whether the postmaster's long-overdue change of heart came only after it was already far too late.
Comprehension · Vocabulary · Sequencing — Grade 8