The Hush-Hush Bride

By Aishvarya

Kamal writes a novel titled “¬ The March-Past Bride”. Arun, Kamal’s friend gets publicity for the novel. Arun tells Ravi, his relative, to purchase a copy of the novel. Ravi obeys.
Who’s Ravi?
Ravi, a not so smart guy at school wants to go for an image makeover as he enters college. A dud in the line of love, he wants to impress a girl named Sunita but is devastated to know that the girl has a number of love affairs.
Heartbroken, he passes his days until the day he tells his problem to Arun.
“The person who helps others in their love life, does get help from God in his or her love life. If you love someone sincerely, fate always gives you a chance to prove your love” says Arun.
Ravi takes the words of Arun as his motto and begins to help a boy named Rajiv in the latter’s love affair with a girl named Anaya.
Ravi decides to challenge the whole world in order to unite Rajiv and Anaya. He does this with the hope that fate brings Sunita to him in return.
Does he succeed?
Does his hope get him the desired result or is it shattered?
“If we help others in their problem, then God helps us in our problem” we all know this golden proverb. But does this proverb find its applicability in love?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Nov 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9789384049218

Book preview

novel"

The Diary

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Ravi sat at his study table. He read some pages of one of his text books.

After a few minutes the facial expression of Ravi changed. He was looking at the book he was studying in a way a person looks at his plate when he is given stale food in a hotel. Ravi shut the book and pulled out a drawer of his study table. There were some envelopes in it. He took out two envelopes. They were big in size.

The boy pulled out some papers from both of these envelopes. On both of these envelopes Writers Bureau had been written.

These were the modules and assignments that had come from Writer’s Bureau. The modules had to be read and the questions asked in the assignments had to be answered. This was something not so easy as one had to read several magazines in order to be able to write the answers.

Ravi began to write the answer of one question asked in the assignment. He spent one hour in writing the answer. The question had asked him to write an article. It took him an hour to complete writing the article.

Whoa! exclaimed the boy. One more question answered

Each question answered made Ravi feel relaxed.

He went to his bed and lay there. He thought of the day when he joined this distant education course.

That day he went to a cyber cafe with a friend. While surfing the internet he came across this course. He could not stop himself from applying for it. He sent a request via e-mail for the form that needed to be filled for the course. After one month, the form reached his house. He arranged the money needed to study the course and became a student of the writing course.

As the course was an international course, Ravi turned into a celebrity among his friends.

Ravi opened his eyes and sat at his study table once again. He put the modules and assignment papers of the course into the envelopes and put them in the drawer.

The next thing he did was pulling out a diary from the piles of notebooks that was on his table.

Let’s have a look at it he said to himself while turning the page of the diary. In the diary were a lot of writings. The diary had served as a rough notebook for the boy whenever he prepared writing an essay or any explanatory answer for his examinations.

He opened the last page of the diary. On the page was written in red ink Sunita. The name was written in italics and even had the picture of a rose flower drawn near it. Ravi touched the page with much gentleness. That meant there was a tender connection between him and the name.

Ravi shut the diary and went to bed once again. He lay on it. Now, he could not study as his mind was busy thinking about someone. He had become nostalgic about something.

He closed his eyes. All of a sudden he could hear a number of voices.

Hey you jerk said a voice. You are so boring said another. Don’t know how people tolerate you yet another voice spoke this.

After some time, Ravi could see the faces of children in his mind. They were saying a number of things to him.

Actually he was walking down his memory lane in his mind. But at one point the images appearing in his mind turned clear and vivid.

Perhaps he had finally got the thing he wanted to think about. Something that had some kind of connection with the name Sunita.

That was the time when Ravi cleared the board examinations of plus two. He applied for admission in various colleges through the internet. It took a month for the results to come out. When the result for the online application was out, it was found Ravi’s admission had been confirmed in G.M College, a famous college in his locality.

His admission in G. M College had been confirmed. He was going to study English Honours. He was studying English Honours as he was following the footsteps of Arun, whom he always looked upon as his elder brother.

Brother I am going to study English Honours in G.M College said Ravi to Arun over the phone.

That’s good. You are following my footsteps said Arun

My dad tells me a lot about you, so I am following your footsteps

It’s okay

But where will this English Honours take me?

After B.A you have to do M.A. A long way is there. You can prepare for the civil services or you can end up as a professor

Not bad

The science stream is getting saturated, so the line of humanities is getting cleared for job seekers

Okay

Get a job that brings respect to you. Becoming a teacher or professor is one such job

I will keep this in mind

Arun gave some more instructions to Ravi about college life before ending the conversation over phone.

The first day in college, Ravi had to ask other college students in order to locate the English Honours department. He looked at the department. It had three classrooms. The doors of the classrooms were closed.

Classrooms closed on the first day said Ravi. What a day!

Two more boys walked towards him. They stood near Ravi and kept looking at the closed doors.

Are you guys from the first year? asked Ravi to one of the boys

Yes said one of the boys

We have a closed class room to welcome us

Even I see that

What’s your name?

Gopal

I am Ravi. Nice to meet you

Ravi and Gopal shook hands. The other boy standing with Gopal was Navin.

Friends on the first day said Ravi after leaving college.

As a fresher of the college, Ravi was very punctual in attending classes.

One day he was walking along the corridor of the college towards his class room. He was lost in his thoughts. He had the habit of watching TV serials and thinking about them. While walking, his shoulder got collided against the shoulder of a girl coming from the front. The girl was pushed back a bit. Ravi turned towards her to say sorry.

In the process of saying sorry to the girl, he saw her face.She was fair and slim, with a small black spot on the upper lip. Her eyes were big and had a lot of innocence in them.

I am sorry, said Ravi.

It’s okay, said the girl and walked away. Ravi kept standing and looking at her. Something occurred to his mind and he shouted: Excuse me, lady. The girl did not stop. Perhaps she might not have heard him, or she might have thought Ravi was calling some other lady.

Ravi followed the girl. He had to utter the words excuse me a few more times before the girl halted her steps and looked back at him.

Ravi walked close to her and asked, Excuse me, I am new to the college. Could you tell me where the English Honours department is? He was lying with a purpose. Every lie has a purpose behind it.

Sorry, no idea, replied the girl.

In which department do you study?

Geography.

Okay, I will find out where the English Honours department is.

The girl did not say anything.

Okay, bye. Have a nice day! said Ravi, waving his hand.

He took leave of the girl.

O great! I lied her in a smart way what a luck ! said Ravi to himself while walking.

Meeting Again

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Ravi returned home with a smile on his face. At home, he kept thinking about his meeting with the girl.

I was never like that. I was never smart in starting a talk with an unknown girl, said Ravi to himself.

For some time he reminded himself of his school life where he had a crush with a girl who was his classmate but the girl rejected him just because he was not smart enough in his talk. His classmates at school considered him to be a fellow who made others feel bored with his talking.

Some smart talking to a girl was what Ravi wanted to do after entering college, and today he was feeling happy that he had been capable of some smart talking.

The college is proving lucky for me. Let me try my luck in knowing the name the girl, said Ravi to himself while lying on his bed.

In college Ravi had to move to different classrooms in order to attend various classes.He had to go to the hall in order to attend the classes held for Compulsory English.

One day while sitting in the class and waiting for the teacher to come, Ravi looked at other students sitting in the classroom. While looking at the faces of the students, he felt he saw someone who got his attention. He once again looked at that someone who had caught his attention. He found it to be the girl with whom he had bumped.

So she is here in this class said Ravi to himself with a smile on his face.

Ravi saw the girl every day in the classroom where Compulsory English was taught. As time passed he began to develop some kind of fondness for her.

The fondness he developed for the girl helped Ravi in more ways. He became very punctual in his going to college and even in updating the lessons taught in class. He was an average student in lessons but with the passage of time he was getting good with his lessons. The boy would always reach early to the classroom.

You are very punctual in lessons said Gopal to Ravi one day.

Yes I know that said Ravi

What is the secret behind this punctuality?

Nothing. One has just to get up early in the morning and get ready for college. Just that much

You fail us in punctuality. We guys live in the hostel and are late in coming to class

You must have heard the proverb- the nearer to the temple, the farther from God

Gopal and Ravi had a good laugh.

The evolution of Ravi made him a knack in answering the questions asked in the classroom especially in the honours class. This made him a person to be envied by some of his classmates.

Man from where does he get so much knowledge? asked Abhinav, a classmate of Ravi to a boy named Ajay,who was another classmate of Ravi.

A few days after he first saw the girl from the Geography department for almost every day, Ravi made an attempt to meet her again. All these days he was trying to find some excuse to meet her.

How will I meet her? Ravi would say thoughtfully while sitting in his room. I cannot pretend to be a boy who is unable to find his classroom always. That trick worked just once. So should I use the trick of dropping my pen when she is around and ask her if that was her pen? Even that trick has already been used

One might think from where Ravi learnt all this. In school he was the one whom all considered to a boring chap, but none noticed him to a quick learner. He was observing the tricks used by the boys of his class in order to strike a conversation with the girls of his class. He was just using these tricks at the college level.

After a lot of thinking Ravi said Yes, I got a the trick

He got an excuse to meet the girl after a lot of thinking.

He went to the Geography department and waited for the girl to come out. The girl came out.

Excuse me, lady, said Ravi. The girl halted and looked at him.

Yes? asked the girl. She looked at him making her eyes big.

What big eyes! thought Ravi after seeing the eyes of the girl. The eyes of the girl had become big out of curiosity

Do you have the notes of the Compulsory English class that was held yesterday? asked Ravi.

All the Arts students irrespective of their Honours stream had to study Compulsory English together.

After a lot of thinking, Ravi had made a well crafted plan to meet the girl. It was as if he was planning a theft in someone’s house or making a strategy to hit the enemy lines.

Why do you need my notes only? asked the girl.

Ravi was taken aback for a moment; then he got back his composure and said, My classmates are irregular in attending the Compulsory English class, so I have to get the notes of students of other Honours classes. I don’t have friends in other classes. I hope you can understand my problem.

Okay, said the girl.

She gave her Compulsory English notebook to Ravi.He took leave of her.

He saw the name of the girl written on the cover of the note book.

Her name was Sunita Mishra.

That night Ravi sat on his bed in his room and kept looking at the name of Sunita which was written on the cover of the notebook. He turned the pages to look at the handwriting. After he reached the last page of the notebook, he shut the note book and returned to the front cover of the notebook in order to see the name of the girl that was written on it.

His fondness for the girl was increasing.

Better Notes

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So beautiful but so weak in language structure said Ravi while reading the notebook of Sunita.

While reading the notebook of Sunita, a transformation took place in Ravi. The transformation took place in the mind. From a student reading a notebook, the boy turned into a teacher correcting a notebook. His fondness for Sunita had made him wear a teacher’s cap. What a transformation!

Silly mistakes in writing the class notes. Either her mind is somewhere else or she talks a lot when notes are dictated in the classroom said Ravi to himself while going through the notebook of Sunita.

Ravi used his trick in knowing the name of the girl. After going through the notes of the girl he felt the girl was not so studious and was especially weak in English.

After knowing her name, I must think of a trick to make my impression in her mind said Ravi as he sat on his chair and looked at the ceiling of his roof.

When people are engrossed in some kind of intense thinking they look upwards to the sky, to the ceiling or anything that is above - a strange instinctive behaviour among human beings.

After looking blankly at the ceiling for several minutes, Ravi’s eyes became wide and his lips expanded into a big smile. The next thing he did was stretching his hands in elation and saying Yes!

Perhaps, he finally got some trick.

He decided to help the girl. He made notes on a chapter of Compulsory English.

It took him two days to make a proper note of that chapter.

Well, well I have completed the initial step of my big plan said Ravi after completing the note. He was feeling a bit triumphant after the completion of the notes.

The next day he went to college. He waited for the Compulsory English Class to begin.

His wait ended. The time for the Compulsory English classes started. He entered the hall where the Compulsory English classes were held.He was the first to reach the hall. He sat in the last bench.

The students entered the hall and started gossiping. Ravi’s eyes were searching for Sunita.

If she has come to the hall, she will surely be searching for me for her notebook thought Ravi while looking for Sunita.

He spotted her. The girl was also looking around searching for Ravi. Ravi’s eyes met the eyes of Sunita.

Hi Ravi raised his hand. He raised the notebook of Sunita as a gesture to say Hey I have got your notebook with me.

After the classes were over, Ravi walked some distance away from the hall and stood at one place waiting for Sunita. The girl came out of the hall. She saw Ravi and walked up to him.

Where were you these two days? I badly needed my notebook said Sunita as she walked up to Ravi.

Sorry for the delay. I was a bit ill said Ravi.

He returned the notes that Sunita had given him. He gave her the notes he had made.

What is this? asked Sunita

Take this, read this and return this to me tomorrow. These are my notes said Ravi.

The next day both met in the Compulsory English class.

Did you like the notes that you got along with your ones? asked Ravi after greeting the girl.

Yes, said Sunita. They are even better than mine. You are good in English.

Thank you.

Why did you take my notes when you have such a fantastic knowledge about the subject?

"I just needed some help. A little bit of help to do some