Read Online When a Lawyer Falls in Love by Amrita Suresh - Free Book Online

in the first place. Yet Souvik for the past two weeks had been nervously uncomfortable around Jaishree as if the two had had a fight.
     
    ‘Er…I just wanted to give you this,’ Souvik said and placed a card in a white cover on her book. Then he quickly got up and left. That was the nice thing about libraries, one could simply do away with courtesies just by whispering hoarsely.
     
    Jaishree opened the cover of the card. Inside was a glossy picture of a cherubic baby wearing an oversize cap and smiling gaily into the camera. Within the card was a three stanza poem written in a very neat and highly stylised handwriting. The poem read:
     
    In life if one is fortunate one knows,
Beauty of both body and mind,
And in the little I’ve seen of the world,
That’s the rarest blend one can find.
     
    I’m just one of your many admirers,
And you’ll meet others along the way,
Whose life you’ll touch in a manner,
More than words can say!
     
    So here’s a heartfelt blessing,
That may you attain every dream, however high,
And though I don’t know much of astrology, I predict,
Your husband will be one lucky guy!
     
    Jaishree blushed when she read the last sentence. Souvik always managed to make her creamy complexion turn a beetroot red. Jaishree gently placed the card back in its cover and tried to get back to law. But the Bharatanatyam dancer’s mind had already begun to do ballet.
     
    ‘I still haven’t understood this whole graveyard thing. You guys actually met in a graveyard?’ Souvik was asking his friends hanging about the canteen.
     
    Now that his own love life was finally headed in some direction, Souvik had a renewed interest in love stories in general. Yet Vyas was hardly interested. After all, his love story that had begun in a graveyard had quite logically become a horror story.
     
    ‘I don’t know…,’ Vyas said sighing loudly and adding more carbon dioxide to the place. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have met Caroline in the first place.’ Now that was a profound statement. Ankur actually stopped munching on his bhelpuri to listen.
     
    ‘I wouldn’t have wanted to meet her, if I was in your place,’ Pavan declared thinking he was being very funny. Yet looking at Vyas’s tragic expression, he was forced to hastily amend his sentence by saying, ‘I mean, in a graveyard… why would anyone want to date someone from there?’ This line rather involuntarily sounded funny and Souvik smiled. Yet Ankur had the vague feeling that his roommate’s relationship was about to be buried forever.
     
    ‘I mean…we’ve fought before…but never over a third person,’ said Vyas, lifting his spoon in a tragic slow motion. When people are sad, they automatically become a little theatrical.
     
    ‘You should meet up and discuss this,’ Souvik reasoned.
     
    ‘But what exactly is the problem?’ asked Ankur.
     
    ‘It’s her cheesy, cheap cousin! This guy “Vincent” from Dubai, keeps buying her gifts, taking her out and playfully touching her all over…,’ Vyas said as he angrily jabbed his spring roll with a fork. ‘And yes he happens to be a Malayali whom they forgot to ship to the “Gelf”.’
     
    Souvik smiled and turned to look at Pavan who seemed oblivious as he was busy creating bubbles in his cola. ‘See, getting worked up is no solution,’ Ankur consoled, assuming the tone his own mother used each time Ankur would vehemently declare that he was giving up law.
     
    ‘That day when “three” of us went out together, people assumed they were a couple and I was her brother!’ Vyas fumed and Pavan involuntarily giggled. Pulling a straight face Pavan justified, ‘In the south, cousins are allowed to marry.’
     
    ‘That’s just the point. Caroline’s family loves Vincent, and so does she,’ Vyas said his tone agitated, like he was about to cry. ‘Listen…,’ Souvik spoke gently patting Vyas. ‘This cousin has come down after so long, maybe they’re just hanging out and catching