After a stretch of ten days at sea, PCM arrived in Aden on July 28. Instead of the excitement one might expect from someone finally able to stretch his legs, Mozoomdar’s letters give evidence of a man pained at the distance from his loved ones. After receiving and reading his first batch of reply mail from the port city, he gushed over the chance to read his wife’s writing:
Only you can write this way. I feel blessed to read it. I read it again and again. I plan to read it more during my journey…. No matter how low a husband is, the dutiful care of his wife will lead to her own greatness. I hope I can someday become worthy of your love and respect.Note: 18Mozoomdar, Letters, 19-20.
Compare that excitement with his distaste for the crowds of Aden: “I have never been one for company. I don’t like the babble of people. I am lonely in the truest sense of the term, waiting patiently to gain His eternal company.” Note: 19Ibid, 20-21. Again, the unhappiness of Mozoomdar’s solitude manifests a longing for proximity to God.