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Murder Most Foul - 5

by Bala
(Mumbai)

Back to Murder Most Foul -
Chapter 4

He spent his vacation time in Ahmedabad and visited Kulu Manali and other nearby hill stations with his parents for some weeks.

During this long vacation period he was constantly thinking about Sudha and was wondering what she would have been doing and whether she would think about me etc. He felt that perhaps she would not think about him much due to his ever present complex.

After the vacation was over he eagerly returned to Bangalore to resume his studies for the final year but more precisely to find out the present status of Sudha.

As soon as he reached his hostel, he put down all his luggage in his room and went out to the phone booth to make a phone call to Ramesh. Mobile phones were too costly those days and so only a few people had them having been introduced in the market only a little earlier.

The news from Ramesh disturbed him.

He said that during his absence Sudha had received a film offer for an important short role in a prestigious banner and she had already completed the shooting. As per his information from the film circles that role was considered as the acid test for her film career. In that short role she sacrifices her life for saving the life of the hero whom she loves dearly. She had received a very positive response from the filmy sources, Ramesh said.

Highly demoralized he asked Ramesh what was she going to do about our stage programs, whether she was interested in continuing with the singing programs or not?

Ramesh replied that he did not know about that. He said that there were 2 stage shows in the past month and when he tried to talk to Sudha to know whether she would be available for the programs she did not come on the line but somebody else replied that since she was busy with the film shootings she could not spare time.

After finishing his talk with Ramesh he rang up Sudha's phone number, but it kept ringing for a long time. Probably there was nobody in her house. He kept the phone down highly dejected. He thought that perhaps he would have to forget her now.

He was puzzled about his singing option in his music troupe programs. At the same time he also thought that without Sudha what was the use of singing if some other girl was going to sing along with him. He would have no interest in that.

But life has certain surprises in store for everybody. He had gone to the market to purchase some text books for his current years' course.

As he was about to enter a technical book shop, he heard somebody calling his name. He turned towards the side from where the sound came and what he saw there electrified him.

Sudha was standing there!

Both of them stood as statues unable to know how to proceed further. After a few moments Sudhir was the first to recover and he cautiously said "Hello, how are you?" and gave a weak smile.

Sudha flashed an energetic smile and asked him "What happened to you? Are you not feeling well?"

Looking at her cautiously again he said "I am feeling somewhat down. I came back to Bangalore from Ahmedabad only last night and due to the long travel, was feeling tired".

She said "Common, let us go to the restaurant for some snacks and a cup of coffee" and walked towards the nearby hotel.

Slowly he joined her. They sat down at a table. Taking the initiative she gave the orders for both of them.

She started the conversation and spoke for some time without any prompting from him.

She said that her mother had succeeded in getting her a small role in a film and that she had already completed the shooting, but the film would be released after some months only since only about 20% of the film had been completed including her part.

So she said that the public did not know anything her having acted in a film. That's why nobody would recognize her in public places now and she smiled at her own joke.

But she became serious after narrating that portion. She said "Sudhir I was only joking, but now I am afraid. I was waiting for your arrival so that we could discuss about our future plans".

He asked "Why are you afraid?" a little puzzled.

She said that her mother was seriously trying to get more roles for her. Since she had already made her debut now, the response from the other film producers would be positive as compared to the past. Once her mother succeeds in getting her further roles in more films it would be very difficult for her to meet him in future she said.

Sudhir said "So what should we do now?"

She threw a bombshell: "We should immediately get married in a temple secretly with some of your close friends as witnesses, who would also take our marriage photos".

Shocked, Sudhir literally shouted "What?"

......To be continued....

Go to Murder Most Foul - Chapter 1