More than just Feluda (Fanfic)

The Book

Sujata took some time to get over this fact. It was kinda disheartening that her Feluda was actually married all this while, but this new character introduction gave a completely different angle to her impression of him. She had so many questions about this Mrs. Mitter, but didn't know where she would get the answer. Sujata didn't dare to talk about it with Tapeshbabu again, but liked to steal looks at the frame whenever possible, trying to imagine how she actually would have been.

She had been working here for a week now, so she just tried to ask Tapeshbabu's wife, but to her disappointment, Malini Debi just told her that she came into the house after Mrs Mitter's death, so didn't know a lot about her.  

Mr Mitter grew more comfortable with Sujata now and listened to her. His health, however, was slowly declining instead of getting better. It made Sujata sad inside, but there was nothing more that she could do about it.

Until about three weeks since Sujata started her job there, Mr Mitter could talk with her freely, even taunt her, and they became good friends. Sujata once asked him, 

"During your appointment at hospital, how did you know I was from Maharashtra?"

He smiled slightly "Your locket. You wore a loose tulsi mala with the red thread instead of plane and tight around the neck. That's a typical Maharashtrian-Vaishnav traditional way. "

Sujata looked down and realised. Of course!

"And how did you tell I was there since four months?"

He paused befor answering. "I thought you were smart."

Sujata just looked at him with a lost look.

"It was September-October. You obviously were new, so I guessed you're from the latest batch, and almost all academic institutions in India start a new term in June itself. So it must have been four months...Makes sense?"

Her eyes lit up now. It had been so obvious all this time!

"Oh my god! It surely does make sense now..."

"I expected better from you."

Sujata looked down, folded her hands in a Namaste and said in a dramatic voice, "Amak khoma korben (Please forgive me)!! I promise I'll be awake and aware and smarter next time..."

"As you should be!"

After almost a month of sincere work at the Mitter house, Sujata got something she never even dreamt of having. She got access to a part of Mr Mitter's bookshelf!

"You can get books to read from that section if you're bored just sitting around my bed. I will also feel better if there isn't someone continuously watching over me for hours."

"What?!! Me?... S-sure! Thank you!.."

"But JUST that section, okay?"

"As you say sir! Thank you so much!..."

This permitted section unfortunately did not include his blue diaries, but it had many other old books on a lot of stuff, which was more than enough for Sujata at this point. The next week went all happy and dreamy, as Sujata came to the Mitter house more for the books than for Mr Mitter. Mr Mitter also taunted her on this, but she smiled it away.

One fine day, as Mr Mitter was sleeping, Sujata went to the shelf to keep a book about theoretic mathematics or something, which made her yawn in just 30 seconds after opening it. 

She kept the book and looked at the other side of the shelf, the one that 'wasn't allowed' to her. She looked behind at the bed. Then at the shelf. 

If she did touch the books here, no one was going to know. 

She eyed the blue-notebooks on the upper side of the shelf, quite near to her allowed side. Again looking behind at the sleeping Mr Mitter, Sujata slowly lifted her hand to the shelf....

THUD!

A brown medium sized book had fallen down. 

She froze for a moment. Mr Mitter had heard it and he was opening his eyes. She couldn't just stand like this and get caught, otherwise he would never let her touch anything from here again. She quickly picked up the book and shifted to her 'allowed side' of the shelf before Mr Mitter could adjust his specs and look properly.

He still noticed her alarmed expressions and asked "What was that?"

" I... was taking a book from above... But it fell."

He continued staring at her. "From where?"

This question caught Sujata off-guard. She still tried to sound as sincere as possible. 

"r-right here... On the high shelf." She pointed at a different one.

He waited a moment, then said, "Okay, I trust that's it."

She nodded and quickly picked the book up. He removed his glasses and closed his eyes to sleep again. Sujata, trying not to mess things up any more, took the book and sat on a nearby chair quietly. She looked at it properly. There was no heading. She flipped through some pages and realised it was a notebook... Or maybe, a diary. Written in Bangla.

She flipped to the first page. It was plain except a name written at the top.

'Sindhuja'.