Suicide Note

Abu Ishahaq Hossain's 'Suicide Note' opens with a vivid, almost sacred description of an evening landscape. The setting sun, the sleeping valley, the whispering breeze, all of nature seems to bow in reverence. Shelley's line about nobody bowing to the setting sun feels contradicted here, as everything prostrates purely out of love.

The narrative then shifts to Hamza's childhood memories. At nine, he shared a room with his grandmother and cousins, listening to her dramatic nightly tales. Her storytelling was so vivid that the ghost she described seemed to descend into their dark room, making them cower under the quilt.

Now, years later, Hamza stands in that same tranquil evening. The breeze carries his grandmother's warmth, but his mind is elsewhere. University, an international hostel, Asha, twenty-five years of love, these memories rage within him. The thought of love makes him shiver, and he wonders if love can ever truly be unconditional.