Essay: A Dispatch to my sullen scholar friend by Dr. Bilal Ahmad Dar

In this essay, Dr. Bilal Ahmad Dar shares a letter to a friend with whom he shared a scholarly rapport before a misunderstanding occurred.

Preamble to Dispatch

People must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness is all, so says William Shakespeare in his famous tragedy ‘King Lear’. This Shakespearean dictum is quite cogent and we all should adhere to it in order to get going in this capricious world of unpredictable coincidences and calamities. All humans, at times, are liable to erroneous acts and impulsive omissions and commissions because of their sentimental frailty, mental fragility, and sensual instability. But all these flaws and imperfections should not sour their relationship and sense of camaraderie.

The mistakes that we humans commit are most of the time inadvertent and not deliberate. It is the omission or commission of any act that leads us to any tragic end or for that matter that puts an end to any strong relationship. So, nothing is in the hands of us humans. We are just puppets in front of our pre-destined and pre-determined fallouts of an unjust nature. The elements and organs in our body are antipodal and contrary to each other. We have a mind. It is there to think and ponder.