Two Sherlockhomes

Every Thursday morning begins with a cup of tea and reading "Malayala Manorama Weekly" in my room. Discussions on plots, twists and future course of the story follow. That day the hero of one of our favourite novels "Prabalan" by Josy vagamattam was sentenced to life imprisonment. This saddened us immensely and I said "Josy cannot keep him in jail for long".

"In Josy's previous novel 'Thadangalpalayam' the hero had escaped from jail and proved his innocence. This time Josy will go for a different treatment", Achachan pointed out.

"I think good conduct will reduce his term. He will not serve more than 5 years in jail" I concluded.

Bosh was listening to our conversation with great interest. He took a deep breath and started to talk in a faltering fashion, fumbling for words. "Would you people consider (pausing for a moment), just consider, solving my problem".

It was totally unlike the Bosh we all knew. I composed myself and replied "Why not"? I looked at Achachan and he nodded his head in agreement.

We met at Hobnob that evening and made ourselves comfortable on the seats. We both sat in silence for a few minutes, as we waited for Bosh to explain."Yesterday I received a package by courier", he said and handed over the package to me. I unwrapped it and found an attractive cover inside with the handwritten caption 'I Love U'.

Achachan snatched it from my hand and observed it carefully and commented "It is posted from Kottayam".

Bosch looked at him in astonishment."Just check the stamp man"! Achachan yelled.

I intervened: "you are quite famous among the girls in RIT.One of them must be playing a prank on you".

This forced bosh to make the stunning revelation that it is not the first time he is receiving the cover. This statement was followed by complete silence.

Finally after two long unbearable minutes achachan said."You cannot rule out the possibility of a male fan". Bosh looked angrily at achachan and he softened his words with a smile and continued. 'For the time being we will concentrate on RIT girls."

Bosh went into deep thought. Meanwhile I ordered for tea and cakes for all.

"Do you doubt anybody"? I asked.

That question brought him back to the present and his answer was "No". Hobnob uncle brought tea and cakes and Bosh told him "Today I will pay for all"

This gleeful announcement added fresh life to the discussion, and I said: "We can rule out juniors. They will not dare for such an act. Concentrate on girls from our batch. Civil, Electrical and Electronics."

In his enthusiasm to contribute to the search Bosh muttered "Mech Rani". She was the only girl in our batch. "No", Achachan screamed, "leave her. She knows you very well. It is impossible for her to do this". I could only move my head in agreement because my mouth was full of cake.

"Most of the electrical girls are out of Bosh's league and that leaves civil and electronics girls in the race for bosh's mystery girl" Achachan was resounding.

"Why can't we check the handwriting of all the girls?" it was Bosh's query.

"If the person really knows to keep the secret, he or she would have written on the cover with fake handwriting" Achachan was not ready to leave his 'he' theory and that further frustrated Bosch.

"Bosh is pretty close to civil girls. It must be one among them."I concluded.

With left eyebrow arched Bosh asked: "Are you sure?"

"Yes I am"! I winked my eyes.

By the time we finished the discussion everybody had their stomach full and Bosh paid the bill. Bosh was assigned to get the list of civil girls and he obliged.

Further discussions continued for 6 more days in Hobnob and Bosh was more than happy to pay the bills. Circumstantial evidences and logical conclusions led to one among the several names discussed. Bosch was calm and composed than I had seen him in a long time. The girl was a stunner and Bosh had a crush on her. As I announced her name I could hear his heart beating wildly against his chest.

"Actions we take in a rush will haunt us forever. As soon as we get anything concrete on this, you will be the first to be informed" I assured Bosch.

Next day was Thursday and as the streams of sunlight woke me up in the morning, I saw a 'Malayala manorama weekly' lying in my table. Achachan was snoring in next bed. I went on to read my favourite novel in which our hero decided to complete his reduced sentence of 5 years.

After sometime Bosh entered the room like a bolt of thunder and caught me by my neck and kicked Achachan on his ass, landing him on the floor. I was devastated and taken aback by such an act. It took couple of minutes for Bosh and us to regain normalcy and he told "This morning I bought Manorama and read the story. It went as you guys predicted. It motivated me to go forward and propose to my girl. It was a total disaster. You morons...she is not the one. Everybody is making fun of me because of you two sherlockhomes".

That girl or boy is still an enigma!