A Letter from Neil Armstrong

 

At Cadet College Hasanabdal, where I was studying in Class 10, we boarders were required to write letters home once a fortnight. The letters were collected during prep period, and any lapse on this account was met some sort of minor penance. On one occasion, I was reminded by a dorm-mate about the letter which I had forgotten to write. Hastily, I tore up a page from an exercise notebook but could not think of anything worthwhile to write to my parents. Suddenly it struck me, half in jest, to write a letter to the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. I do not exactly remember what I wrote, but it was a congratulatory note: 'Well done, sir'... sort of. The letter was folded and placed in an envelope, without a postage stamp, as two rupees were not affordable from the meager pocket money we got. The letter was collected by the dorm in-charge, without much ado. The address on the envelope was very sketchy too (Neil Armstrong, NASA, Houston, USA). I assumed that the letter would not make it past our local post office, so I did not bother about it anymore.

A few weeks later, at pack up time, I saw a bunch of cadets at the letter rack in our Omar Wing. My name was being called out and everyone seemed excited about something. When the letter was handed over to me, I spotted ‘National Aeronautics and Space Administration’ in the sender’s address, and the post office date stamped 1 Jan 1970. On opening the envelope, I could not believe that Neil Armstrong had actually replied in his own handwriting! The letter is a cherished memento from the first man on the moon. The letter is quite rare, as Armstrong stopped replying to letters after a year or so. He also did not give many interviews, and remained reclusive till he passed away.