TUMKUR: The sorrow of losing his sweetheart Smriti has not left Sudeep Kumar, but the assistant director of physical education in Tumkur University is back at work, hoping to find solace. It was on March 12 that Smriti, a Kannada lecturer, was killed by her brother Mahadeva for marrying outside the caste.
In an informal chat with this correspondent, Sudeep said he has still not come to terms with the shock of his wife’s death. When he received a call saying that his ‘mana’ (what he used to call her) was unconscious, he started on his motorbike from Tumkur and reached the hospital in Mysore, covering 300 km in two-and-a-half hours.
He was searching for her in the ICU when a staff member informed a lady by that name was dead. The shock was mind-numbing, he recalls. He performed all the rituals and returned to duty after immersing the ashes in river Cauvery.