High School Romance Revisited

Chapter 48 - The Revelation

"Where the fuck is that lens!" Akhil was screaming at the top of his lungs. Never thought it could have turned this mad.

Thank god my best team members were here and Lofa was in charge of assigning duties. I could have never pulled this out without them. It was the ritual of subhodrishti, in ancient days this was probably the first time the groom and bride met and after attending Chitra's wedding I had a first-hand experience how things could become total chaotic during this ritual. The groom and bride's teams were literally having a fight on who could raise the one high above and make their party win. Now, that becomes a bit challenging for the photographers. But nevertheless, thankfully I had the required lenses. 

"I have got this Akhil, chill!" I shouted over the mad cheers and Akhil relaxed concentrating back on the other angles.

I was at the moment sitting over a high ladder, which Lofa had placed just beside the mandap, in case we needed one. Looks like I need to give her a raise.

Once, Mahashweta and Ishan sat down for the other rituals we breathed a sigh. It was now the relaxing part. Akhil and Shaon took over while I prepared for the live edits. "How's it going?" I asked Rob. "Never better!" he grinned. Which meant it was sorted. Great!

About half-past ten when finally it was a wrap I spotted Rohini and Balraj walking towards the newlyweds. I didn't want to show up, mostly because I was in a mess but also they might also require a photo with the bride and groom, so I took few candids from far and asked Akhil to get the close-ups.

Avoiding the crowd Lofa and I sat down in a corner to grab our dinner. "You sure you want it light?"

"When is Tex-Mex ever light?" I eyed her who handed me a bowl of what looked like a similar combination of Chili's popular Chicken Crispers Santa Fe Salad. A flavour of Texas in Thailand! Only Mahesweta could have thought of it!

Munching on the lettuce or rather relishing I kept my eyes closed. I could feel all the tiredness slowly going out. It was definitely my kind of detox. And then it ended. With an obnoxious interruption, my phone vibrated in my pockets. Yes, the very elegant dress that I was wearing did have a pocket.

Half balancing the bowl in one hand I took out the disturbing device. Looking at the name that flashed on my screen the first thought was to smash the phone but it was expensive, I remembered. Sliding the call option I almost barked, "if it is again about Thai girls, I'll disconnect Karan Bajaj."

"Shut up. It's me!"

I almost threw the lettuce I was eating. "Rai? Why the hell are you calling from Karan's phone?"

"Because I couldn't find mine. Now shut up and listen to me. Did you by any chance know Shekhar was fucking around with Carmen before our boards?"

"Carmen? You mean Carmen Jones from the cultural team?" Okay, that was news for me! I had never thought that Carmen Jones, the nerd, the poet, would go out with someone like Shekhar. "Rai, I am confused."

"When are you not confused! This whole thing happened because you are always confused!" She suddenly sounded furious. "You were first confused about making your relationship public, then confused about Shekhar being good or bad, then went confused whether to talk it out to Mahen or not and now you are confused about Carmen and Shekhar. The only thing you have been sure about is that you are in love with that Ganguly!"

"Yes." After a whole minute of that lecture on my confusion, I accepted it without any confusion.

I could hear her taking a few breaths and then she said, "Now, our juniors at the cultural team believe that Carmen somehow replaced a very important footage of that night because she had access to the security room."