More than just Feluda (Fanfic)

'Boudi'

They went in the hall and settled on the sofa there, Sujata sitting opposite to Tapeshbabu. He started;

"It was 1963-64, when I was just about 12-13 years old. Their marriage was an arranged one of course, but it wasn't under very happy circumstances. Feluda would never have been ready for a wedding, if it wasn't because of my mother. 

She was very sick during those days, almost on the verge of dying; so she wanted to make sure there was a woman in the house to take care of me, my father and Feluda. You already know that our family fled from Bangladesh during the Partition in '47, when Feluda lost his parents. So my mother said that she had promised Feluda's mother before running away, that she would take care of him and settle his life; and now she just wanted to fulfil the promise before dying by seeing his wedding.

Feluda blatantly refused in the beginning, but her condition almost blackmailed my father and forced Feluda into getting married as soon as possible. Now, Feluda was a decent groom; good-looking, had a job in the bank, had a house to live in, but we were still his extended family. And relatives around had already concluded him as an eccentric person with his weird interests and liking to stay alone. Thus, my father wasn't able to find a girl from our relatives' connection for him. However, my mother had a friend, Lakshmidebi. Her husband was friends with a fairly well-off Baidya (doctor trained in traditional medicine) in a village on the outskirts of Kolkata. He had a daughter of 17, who lost her mother long ago and wasn't treated well by her step-mother. My father took a zero-interested Feluda and met with the Baidya, and the wedding soon took place.

I called her Boudi. She was younger than Feluda, who was about 26-27 then. Boudi was quite shy and clumsy in the starting, and Feluda would always be annoyed with her. He hated her because this whole wedding had been forced on him, and funnily Boudi did not care much about her husband back then, because she got along with the rest of us quite easily. Still, she tried to be nice with him, to take responsibility of his stuff, but Feluda either completely ignored her or they ended up arguing. He tried to keep as far from her as possible, so much that I wondered how these two shared the same room. Meanwhile, my mother surprisingly did not die of the sickness and recovered in a few months, which added to Feluda's frustration of being a forced husband. 

Me, being the devout follower of Feluda that I was, tried to avoid Boudi just like Feluda did, but this could not continue for long. We were of similar ages so got along quickly. She was the sweet friend who helped me deal with my parents during arguments, and I helped her deal with Feluda!"

Sujata took in all this information. Then she asked, 

"But did both of them ever get along??"

Tapeshbabu sighed. "They both were the reason I believed the 'marriages are made in heaven' theory. Though by coincidence, Boudi and Feluda were meant for each other. I already saw a second set of parents in them. While Feluda taught me to ride the bicycle, Boudi tended to my wounds after falling down from it. But they both took a lot of time to understand this and accept each other. No woman would have been able to deal with Feluda's nature and understand his interests as Boudi did; and Feluda, he surprisingly did make a loving husband."

"Ohh, that's so sweet! They sound like the perfect couple..."

"Perfect or not, they were really good together. But as the saying goes, all good things come to an end." And he stared at the wall into nothing, as if dreaming.

"I'm- sorry." Sujata awkwardly said.

"Ohh no, no problem..." He came back to normal.

"So, that's the story summarized. I've talked too much, maybe... It's quite late now, I'll send the driver with you back to the hospital."

"No no, I can..."

"It's alright doctor madam, don't feel awkward. Your safety is important."

"Thank you... And, just a request..."

"Yes?"

"I'm much younger than you, you can call me Sujata."

Tapeshbabu smiled. "Sure, Sujata."