A risqué affair Chapter 14

‘Which flowers do you like love?’ she rang him at around 11 in the morning.

‘I love orchids,’ he answered.

‘Why do you want to know?’ he asked.

‘Because I want to see how orchids look,’ Ashmi answered humorously.

‘You ask so many queries,’ she added lovingly

‘So that the conversation keeps flowing,’ he said.

‘ Well..darling, I too love to talk to you, but my intercom is buzzing and I guess, my boss wants to talk to me,’ Ashmi lied taking advantage of the intercom next to her cabin, whose ring tone had been set quite loud.  

She had, tagged along with her colleague, who had a meeting scheduled at Green Park. He was meeting Santayani Ghosh, a new designer. If the meeting went favourable, they would design the new line of dresses for Epicure Exports. They had come with samples, but then that wasn’t sufficient to take a call. By the look and feel of it the meeting went well. Santayani Ghosh  was almost on the board. The final approval had to come from Jain, and knowing him he would have agreed. Santayni was a talented designer straight from NIFD, Delhi. One could get lost in her hair that made her tumble out straight from the musical band of John Lenon. Her colleague did a quick retreat after the meeting, as he didn’t wish to go back to the office again. As their paths diverged, Ashmi quickly picked a bouquet of orchids with a box of Dark Fantasy for Mathias and began to wait for him at Costa Coffee. It was 4.30 in evening and Costa was buzzing with activity.  Young men and women were sitting across each other. At one table an elderly couple sat and they were having chilled coffee with their gaze locked with each other, which conveyed a life time filled with love.

What am I doing here? Her mind warned her. It always did.

Because, at fifty, I don’t think I could sit with Akhil with an expression like this couple has. May be I want to explore another world. How is it to get attention of another person? I am tired of being taken for granted all the time.

I think these are sufficient reasons, she explained to herself.

Mathias came and put his hand around her shoulders. The preaching mind stopped. It always did in his presence.

‘Hi baby, you look gorgeous,’ Mathias complimented her on the red top that she was wearing. ‘Just by looking at you, my blood has begun to flow, you know where,’ he said.

‘Stop it Albert,’ she chided him, but appreciated his compliment. ‘Thank you,’ you noticed the change.

‘What would you like to have?’ he said.

 Today, you order,’ she said and her mind wandered again.

Just a day before this meeting, she and Laily drove to DT Mega Mall, after work, to pick something suitable for her to wear for the date.

‘The kurti thing, will not work,’ she said flatly.

‘Okay, then help me choose something appropriate,’ she said. Laily was an almost fashion designer. Just before the exam she had eloped with her boyfriend. They married at Haridwar. Two years after the marriage, he went to the office one day and didn’t return back.  Since then, Laily had been a restless soul. She had her yearly conference scheduled at Bluo for Executive Assistants. She would always go there, wondering some day, she would get a man with whom she could share time and loneliness away. After each such meeting she would come back depressed. Still, she hadn’t lost hope.

They had chosen to go to Lifestyle but the display at Madame’s caught their attention. Laily settled on an off-shoulder, egg-white top and Ashmi bought a red shirt which would cling to her contours, a bit daring, as it would plunge till her cleavage and covered three-fourths of her arm. After their shopping, the girls went to Laily’s pad, at Princeton in DLF Phase V.  Ashmi called Akhil, requesting him to pick her up from there.

 ‘Why don’t you change in this top and let’s see Akhil’s reaction. I am sure he will go crazy about you when he sees you in this outfit? she spoke between puffs of smoke.

‘Well, no harm in trying,’ she muttered.

 ‘Woman, this thing is so daring,’ she shrieked at her reflection.  

‘Because it’s a sexy top meant to be worn when you go on a date,’ Laily reminded her, as if she had forgotten it.

‘But, the valid question is that how do I wear it to work,’ Ashmi was worried.

‘Just team it with a stole, and it becomes modest,’ Laily said with a smile that said that she was genuinely happy for her.

‘Now, let’s see Akhil’s reaction,’ she was excited about it. So was Ashmi.

Will you turn the light on, she requested Akhil while clambering on Fortuner.

Akhil looked through her.

‘May be he is lost in thoughts,’ she thought and continued to persist.

‘Yes, it looks good,’ he said and continued to drive while listening to commentary with rapt attention.

Mathias remark jerked her back to reality.

‘I am a desirable woman, she thought, who is not desired by her husband. Her mind finished the sentence for her. She chose to ignore it.

Mathias ordered tall glasses of ice cold Mocha and brownies to go with it.

‘Why did you decide to meet me here?,’ he asked her between sips of coffee.

‘For the simple reason, as you go out of control in places that offer privacy,’ she said.

‘Don’t you like that?’ He questioned.

‘I didn’t feel that in Pristine Resort. You are as deprived as me, then why are you stopping yourself as well as me,’ he was desperate to know the answers. He held her hand and brought her finger closer to her lips.

‘Will you behave?’ Ashmi looked at him sternly.

‘You act for me the way Viagra acts for men like Akhil?’ he came up with a witty simily.

 ‘What do you mean? Akhil doesn’t get intimate with me?’ she sounded offended, as if she had that starved look hanging on her.

‘If he would then you wouldn’t be sitting here with me,’ he said.

‘I know that, but there is no point rubbing in salt on my wounds,’ she was hurt now.

‘No darling, you are getting it all wrong. I want to get close with you all the more and spend memorable moments together. You are very special to me,’ he quickly made amends.

‘I get it,’ she acknowledged.

 ‘Why don’t you discuss something about your family?’ she made an effort to digress the conversation.

‘Me and dad are not on talking terms, I am very close to my mother, whom I support every month,’ shared.

‘But doesn’t your mother earn?’ she asked a bit surprised because once he told her that her mother got promoted and he was quite happy for her.

‘Yes, she earns, but she can’t spend a penny on her own. My father manages all her money. So I send her Rs 10,000 every month, for her personal expenses,’ he said with his eyes cast downward.

‘Ashmi held his hands between her hands. I can understand, Paras, my boss is one such husband. He has internet password of his wife’s account and he monitors her account once a week. The man is such a creep,’ she said disgustedly.

 He agreed.

‘How is Akhil, when it comes to money,’ Mathias asked. ‘He is quite democratic. We both have a vague idea that how much we earn, but we don’t monitor each and every penny. There is a mutual saving decision in which we both contribute,’ she said the plan.

‘And how much is that?, I am sure it must be more than what I earn, he said with a grin.

‘Now stop all this, and let’s talk business,’  he said with a business like expression too.

‘What?’ she asked with a frown and then wrinkled her lips and twisted her nose.

 ‘What’s that?’ he asked completely astonished.

 ‘That’s my special talent. Can you do it?’ she challenged.

 ‘Obviously not, do you think I am crazy,’ he retorted.

‘No, this is all about flexing your lips and twisting your nose at the time,’ she delved in the technicality involved.

‘So, you want to flex your lips. Try it on me,’ he challenged her now.

 ‘Here,’ she asked with astonishment.

‘Yes, why don’t you try?’ he dared her.

 ‘Okay, I am game,’ she said.

‘Now was his turn to retreat. Are you sure?’ He asked again with an emphasis on ‘sure’.

‘Why not? You just flex your neck towards me,’ she said.

He did and in a flicker of second, she stole a kiss.

‘That’s too good, but I want more,’ he said admirably.

‘I know that, but the problem is location,’ she said.

‘One of my roommates is in Egypt, since I don’t know when and when the other one goes on a tour, we too can meet at my flat,’ he said.

‘I don’t think, we should do that again,’ she reasoned.

‘Darling, once bitten try twice, and you are amazing at it,’  he said.

 ‘What do you think about me?’ he asked.

‘That I will tell you later because now I am leaving,’ she said.

‘Why, so early,’ he whined, after all, we are meeting after a month.

‘Because my taxi driver has texted me that he has reached,’  she said and picked her bag. Adjacent to it was the ignored bunch of orchids with a box of Dark Fantasy biscuits.

 ‘I completely forgot about these,’ she said and gave him those.

‘Dark Fantasy! Tonight I am going to fantasize about you, while eating it and we will be naughty tonight.’ He tried to tease her. She wasn’t there, she had left. 

Once out she picked a bunch of rajnigandha flowers, Akhil’s favourite and a box of Temptations for him. Well settled in the cab, she called him.

The answering machine was on. ‘Hi..Akhil,  Ashmi this side, Oh leave it,’ she said and dis-connencted the phone. Two hours with Mathias and time went by in a breeze, ‘May be I shouldn’t have married in so much hurry,’ she wondered, ‘and sampled more men before I zeroed on him.’ 

Will he marry her?

Chapter 15

October 1995

Ganesha says, ‘This week is quite good for you. You will get success in academic endeavours and your love life will surprise you.’

 It was Sunday evening. Ashmi and Akhil had met at Lodhi Gardens. She was reading out his weekly astro forecast to him.

What kind of surprises now you have in your love life? ‘Tell me, it won’t hurt,’ she asked, as they strolled in the park hand-in-hand.

‘What nonsense? Just because a stupid astro forecast tells that my love life will give surprises, you have started to doubt me.  This is so mean!’ he exclaimed with theatrics in place.

 ‘By-the-way, let me tell you….’ and then wisdom prevailed and he chose to eat the remaining part of the sentence.

Since they had celebrated their birthday together, she would make it a point to tell him his astro forecast for Cancer, though he was a Scorpio and his birthday fell on November 15.

Akhil would cringe inwardly each time she would tell him his forecast, but then everything is fair in love and war. Trust Ashmi on being meticulous. If she took up a task, she would do it with the patience and skill of a good teacher combined with a dexterous surgeon. It continued for good three months, before the façade fell apart with a bit of help from senior Mr and Mrs Mishra.

Akhil and Ashmi were back in Ranchi for the autumn break and they had taken different trains, because senior Mrs Mishra had made this clear to Ashmi. When senior Mr Mishra came from Gumla during the Dussehra break, Mrs Mishra had a plan in place. Both senior Mishras and their close neighbor had to figure out the level of Akhil’s commitment towards Ashmi. After all, it involved ijjat of the family and no way could the family’s honor be put at stake for a thing called love.

The plan was in place. Now came the other part: execution. And it couldn’t have been accomplished until Ashmi cooperated. She had to invite Akhil to home for the lunch.

‘Hi! How are you?’ Ashmi said when the phone rang.

‘How did you know, it’s me on the other side?’ he enquired completely fascinated.

‘Well, this is called intuition,’ she said. It was a different matter altogether that she had replaced the word ‘hello’ with ‘hi’ to greet the person, when the phone rang, irrespective of who was on the other side so that Akhil could feel special.

‘What are you doing this afternoon?’ she tried to probe without sounding intrusive.

‘What do you do in Ranchi? Just while away the time and I too will be doing the same,’ he answered all interested in Ashmi’s proposal now.

‘Are we meeting somewhere today?’ he blurted unable to contain his excitement.

‘Yes, dear, we are,’ she played along.

‘And where?’ he was keen to get the details.

‘At my place,’ she said.

‘Oh!’ he said.

‘Mom wants you to come over so that she could cook her trademark fish curry for you,’ Ashmi threw the bait. He was a foodie.

‘Wasn’t she satisfied after offering coffee?’ Akhil thought but refused to verbalise his thoughts.

‘Well, what time?’ he said.

‘Sharp at 2 pm you be my guest,’ she said and disconnected the phone.

Akhil vroomed his bike and was off to Deepak’s place.  .

‘You come along with me,’ he said promptly discarding the preliminary of greetings.

‘May I know where am I going please?’ he was utterly confused.

‘We are going to Ashmi’s place to have lunch,’ Akhil said.

‘There is a technical hiccup and I can’t come along. My elder sister’s in-laws are coming over and I have to be here,’ he lied  as he was too scared of senior Mrs Mishra.

‘I am too scared of her mother, and that’s the reason, why I am tagging you along, he filled in the unspoken words of Deepak.

‘What time do we have to reach there?’ Deepak asked.

‘At 1pm,’ Akhil lied.

‘Then we better leave,’ he suggested glancing at his watch that showed 12.45.

‘We better,’ Akhil agreed and kick-started his bike.

Sharp at one they had reached Ashmi’s home. Senior Mr Mishra opened the collapsible door for them to usher the boys in. Ashmi served water to them while senior Mr Mishra carefully combed his hair. He had to be careful with so little precious strands left. Deepak winked at Akhil, who preferred to maintain a straight face. He had been duped. Ashmi never told him that his dad was also there at home.

Will the questionnaire session start once again, he wondered painfully remembering the previous session. Mercifully, senior Mr Mishra was a man of few words.

He asked just one question.

‘What are your plans regarding Ashmi?’ he asked.

 Akhil was flabbergasted. Mentally he calculated, ‘Just two dates and a movie have taken place and a coffee at their home and an impending lunch, if I would get that after my answer, and I am questioned on my plans regarding her.’

Apparently he answered, ‘I see her as my wife.’  Deepak’s jaws could have fallen from his mouth and Ashmi racked her brains to figure out, if he ever confessed his love to me. Did he ever say, ‘I love you to me?’

She didn’t remember. She was furious. And this is going to be branded as love marriage. Senior Mrs Mishra served the lunch immediately. The doorbell rang and senior Mr Mishra opened the door quite enthusiastically. After all he had invited his favourite neighbor Kokila Sengupta and her husband too for lunch. The moment she stepped in, he updated her on the developments that had escaped her prying eyes. Ashmi could see how upset Kokila was for missing out on the juicy bits. This dope could have kept her busy for the next two days. Kokila appeared as a sophisticated woman who could differentiate a saucer from a plate and knew on which side of the plate to place the knife and the fork. Unlike senior Mrs Mishra. She spoke fluent English and senior Mr Mishra admired her almost guiltily.

Lunch was eaten almost in silence except senior Mr Mishra and Kokila who exchanged notes throughout. The dessert had to wait. It came in the form of shirt and pant piece which was gifted by senior Mr Mishra to Akhil. Akhil didn’t know what to do either with the fabric or with the family. He looked at Ashmi with longing brimming in his eyes.

‘We must leave now, because my sister’s in-laws are going to come,’ Deepak said in an attempt to infuse some sanity in this scenario.

‘Yes, we must,’ he repeated after him. Kokila too handed him a gift. It was a cologne and Rs 1001 as shagun. ‘Oh Kokila, you always overdo,’ squealed senior Mr Mishra.

‘Isn’t your daughter mine too? Today is such a happy day. She has found her Mr Right,’ she said with a note of finality in her voice.

‘Will anyone ask me if I love him and want to get married to him or not?’ Ashmi thought. No one cared to do that, after all, she had found him. She too remained silent.