by BS Murthy
'What's wrong with you?' said Roopa all perplexed as Sathyam looked on amused.
'I know how vexatious it is to wait,' said Prasad to Roopa.
'Okay my friend,' smiled Sathyam, 'you're forgiven.'
'You should know that I've skipped lunch,' said Prasad, soaping his hands at the wash basin, 'to savor my sister's preparations.'
'I too have a raakhi sister in her friend Sandhya,' said Sathyam reminiscently. 'What a sweet soul she is.'
'Who can better my sister in any way?' said Prasad looking into Roopa's eyes, and turning to Sathyam, he added, 'When does the next rakshaabandhan come up?'
'That I'll let you know,' said Sathyam. 'Though I regard Roopa no less, know that Sandhya is all too different.'
'M aybe,' said Prasad with apparent conviction, 'but Roopa is Roopa.'
Struck by his direct manner, Roopa looked at him in awe, and thought in puzzlement, 'Isn't he showing an uncommon interest in me. What is he up to? Though he calls me 'sister', his demeanor doesn't reflect any brotherly sentiment, does it really? Why won't his manner betray lust? Oh, what a hypocrite he is to get into this sisterly mess. Isn't it proving to be awkward for him and embarrassing for me as well? Anyway, for me, he's just a handsome man and an interesting company, that's all. He's like any other man in my life, is he not?'
After a couple of visits, Prasad failed to turn up for a week, leaving Sathyam in jitters, even as Roopa felt that she was missing him as well.
'Haven't I got used to his company,' she thought many a time, during that time. 'Or am I craving for his flattery? Hasn't he developed the knack of praising me without alarming Sathyam? And, it's not at all brotherly really, when Sathyam is not around, how he takes my name, with a certain emotion attached to it even! How longingly he looks at me, all the while holding his gaze at my bosom. Isn't his carnal bother troubling his
brotherly candor? What hypocrisy, worse still, is it his strategy to hide his designs on me? Am I indulging in his character assassination by merely surmising? But then, isn't his want for me crystal clear to me. Whatever it is, it's his problem, and I've nothing to do with him anyway.'
'But is it as simple as that?' she felt as she developed second thoughts. 'Am I not missing him? And willy-nilly, am I getting attracted to him? But, how's that possible when I'm in love with Raja. Can anyone ever attract me that way? Am I then flirting with Prasad? Oh, no, I just happen to enjoy his company, bored that I am. That's all there is to it.'
When Prasad finally arrived, Roopa was all alone in her home.
'What's this vanishing act, mister?' Roopa found herself asking him.
'Didn't Sathyam tell you that I had to rush to Delhi?' he said staring into her eyes. 'And you know I had no way to personally contact you.'
'By the way,' she said avoiding his gaze, 'Sathyam became a fish out of water.'
'And I felt miserable all the while,' he said, making no effort to mask his desire. 'Need I tell you why?'
As she felt that she could discern an uninhibited desire in his demeanor, she thought, 'So, he wants me. Does he not look lustful to the bones? But then, how Raja's passionate gaze caresses my frame conveying his craving for my soul. Why, their eyes portray the contrast between lust and love, don't they? Am I not imagining things, strung by my craving for Raja? How does it matter really, when I'm clear whom I want? And to be clear is to be real, isn't it? Well, how could one grasp the reality of life without clarity of thought?'
'What are you thinking about?' he smiled.
'Oh, nothing,' she said embarrassedly.
'Haven't you heard it said that the attributes of woman's utterances have reverse inferences?' he said mischievously, and dwelled upon the proverb to probe the proclivities of the fair sex. 'The perception that women are ambiguous by nature is not unfounded for they tend to dissemble. But then, why should they, anyway? Won't the male dominated society seek to straightjacket them as role models to self-serve man's interests, and judge them on the scale of conformity? Since the male tenets are at variance with the feminine instincts, don't women come to pretend? And, unable to comprehend women, won't the confounded men end up according the benefit of doubt to them, at every turn. It's thus men come to hoist themselves on their own petard, and deservedly at that, so it seems.'
However, before he could get Roopa's reply, he felt Sathyam's pat on his back.
'Why man,' said Sathyam, 'what took you so long?'
'You know,' said Prasad, 'a businessman's time is not his time.'
'Had you given us some inkling,' said Sathyam complainingly, 'we should've given Sandhya's address for you to call on them.'
'I would be often going to Delhi often,' said Prasad, 'but now we're all going to my place for dinner.'
'What's the hurry,' said Sathyam. 'Can't we make it leisurely?'
'Rani won't let me be in,' said Prasad smilingly, 'unless you both come along with me.'
'You know how I value women's sentiments,' said Sathyam goading Roopa to get ready.
'Sentiment is the essence of love,' said Prasad affecting a sneeze. 'What do you say sister?'
As Roopa gave him a searching look, Prasad smiled in all conceit.
Though they readily headed towards Prasad's bungalow in the Banjara Hills, however, it was well past eleven when the host dropped his guests back at their home.
'What a time it was!' said Sathyam in ecstasy as Prasad left.
'It's plain boring,' said Roopa unlocking the door.
'What do you mean?' he protested. 'Rani was so courteous and the kids took to us. You're impossible at times.'
'Better realize,' said Roopa in exasperation, 'that she just condescended to descend, that's all.'
'I think its other way round,' said Sathyam, 'I felt that she's so affectionate.'
'Didn't you try to endear yourself to her,' she said indignantly. 'Stop courting her and you count for nothing to her. I can bet on that.'
'At least concede that she's a fine conversationalist,' said Sathyam in all eagerness, as if to make Roopa see some merit in Rani.
'Why not,' said Roopa in all irritation, 'if only the conversation is all about enlightening others about her father's greatness, her husband's smartness and her kids' brightness? But the advantage is that you might rest your vocal cords while she goes on with her monologue.'
'Isn't that natural for women,' he said grudgingly though. 'But you hardly have a word of praise forme.'
'Forget about me,' said Roopa showing Sathyam his place, 'would you ever let go an opportunity to have a dig at my people.'
'Neither would you miss a chance at nitpicking,' he said in disappointment.
Bothered by her bickering, Sathyam couldn't sleep for a while, and disturbed by Prasad's forthrightness, Roopa stayed awake for long.
'Isn't it a fortnight since I laid the trap for Roopa?' Prasad tried to surmise his station in the route of seduction. 'Still the prey is nowhere near coming. On the other hand, my ardor is on the gallop as though to enslave me to her charms, isn't it? What progress is that? While jolly well enjoying my attentions, she shows no particular interest in me. Just the same, she has come to love my company, hasn't she? Oh, as it looks, that's the only thing to write home about. Could that be a cause for hope anyway? It's as if she doesn't abhor her married life altogether. Won't that make her a bed-hedger in the arena of adultery? But courtesy the darling, haven't I coined a new phrase for the flirting. Well, though only a few of them are beddable; all married women are bedhedgers anyway, are they not?'
'Never mind his dull demeanor, Sathyam must be good in bed,' he contemplated in wonderment. 'Come to think of it, given a good time in bed, won't all women turn a blind to the faults of their men? How strange! But then, it's all so different with Rani. Though she loves me, doesn't she think by giving herself, she's doing me a favor? Why, she couldn't get rid of her Electra complex even after six years of sex life with me that
made her mother twice over! Before her giant of a father, isn't every man a contemptib
ie midget for her? Short of being expiicit, doesn't she tend to impiy that I owe my status and aii that goes with it to her redoubtabie father?'
'No denying it, though,' he went about drawing up the baiance sheet of his married iife. 'After ail, it's our marriage that shifted my gear to the fast track of life from the middle-class morass that it was in. If not, I wouldn't have been any better placed than Sathyam. M aybe, I would have been even worse off for all I know. Oh, how I would have got a wife like his! Instead of eyeing Roopa, I would have been envying Sathyam now. Supposing I got a winner for a wife, won't it have been a tough ask to keep her wooers at bay, that too with my limited means.'
Then he recalled an incident that his wife had made him privy to. When someone made a pass at her, she told the bewildered dasher that he might hope for her favors after acquiring her father's stature and her husband's looks!
'Looks like man's status provides his woman the amour of fidelity against seduction,' he began to think. 'Isn't it better than the chastity belt of yore that would have still left room enough for her deviancies. Well, fidelity apart, being sure about themselves, women of means lose their innate womanliness, don't they? Isn't it sad for the female persona, but none seem to care, even men! Is it not their vulnerability that makes women charming to men and sans a semblance of timidity, won't femininity suffer? But for all her perfect features, doesn't Rani lack that feminine grace that abounds in Roopa.'
'Am I in love with Roopa then?' he wondered. 'What nonsense, leave alone the patience, do I have the inclination to love? I'm just impatient to take her to bed, at the earliest that is. No more and no less.'
He tried to believe what he assumed.
Shortly thereafter, in the wake of the Prasads' return visit, Sathyam was disappointed. 'How I wish they had stayed back for dinner,' he told Roopa. 'But then, she had a prior commitment, didn't she?'
'By now you should know it's but an excuse,' said Roopa indignantly. 'But I won't blame her. Why, she got used to the posh living and so it's not fair to expect her to feel at home in our middle-class home. And to make matters worse for the visitors, you harp on your childhood as if you've stopped living thereafter. I feel these days even Prasad is getting tired of your flogging of the dead horse of your childhood.'
'M aybe you've read her right,' he said turning defensive. 'But I'm sure you're off the mark with him. Besides, if it comes to that, you and Sandhya are no different.'
'You should know that we don't harp on our past, memorable though it was,' she said turning nostalgic. 'We feel the present and dream about our future.'
'How I wish Sandhya visits us on her way to Kakinada,' he said, sounding apologetic. 'It's a shame we couldn't make it to Delhi in all these days.'
Recalling how their plans to go to Delhi went awry every time, Roopa thought dejectedly, 'Leave alone letting me gatecrash into Raja's life, fate keeps me out of Sandhya's embrace even.'
As if to place Rani's unease in their place in its contrast, that Sunday afternoon, Tara visited the Sathyams as they were having their tea after siesta, as Sathyam had developed a taste for tea, fed up giving an explanation for his abstinence.
strange, indeed, is the way one tends to react to the differing pecuiiarities in others. None reminds the rotund about the obesity, for the fear of offending them, but when it comes to the iean, unmindfui of embarrassing them, aii tend to voice their anxiety.
'Got scarce these days,' Roopa weicomed Tara, 'Why so?'
'You know its aii to with the kids' studies,' said Tara as Roopa ied her inside. 'I feei their exam time is more of a testing time for the parents. What about you?'
'If its typing and shorthand in the mornings,' said Roopa, 'then, it's the course materiai in the afternoons. The days are passing by.'
'What of the nights?' said Tara.
'Nightsfoiiow days,' said Roopa, 'don't they?'
'Why not iet days iead into nights,' said Tara hoiding Roopa's hand.
'That way, my dreams roii my days and nights aii into one,' said Roopa dreamiiy.
'Roopa,' said Sathyam in high pitch, 'some tea for Prasad piease.'
'Prasad is his chiidhood friend,' said Roopa. 'See if he interests you.'
'Do you think he's a prospect then?' whispered Tara.
'Why not find it out yourseif?'
'With you around,' crooned Tara, 'who wouid have eyes for me?'
'I aiways wonder,' said Roopa, in aii admiration for Tara's charms, 'if your timepiece turns anticiockwise to prevent time from advancing your age.'
'After I'm done with it,' said Tara winking at Roopa, 'I wouid present that to you.'
'But for now,' winked back Roopa, 'what if he...'
'Let me see if he's hook-worthy after aii,' said Tara smiiingiy, 'but I teii you, if oniy you choose, you couid hit many a buii'seye.'
'Weii, one hit couid be too many for me,' said Roopa reminiscentiy, and ied Tara into the haii with tea for aii.
'She's Tara, my friend,' said Roopa to Prasad serving him some steaming tea.
'He is my bosom friend and a ieading industriaiist,' said Sathyam to Tara with a sense of pride attached to that.
It is a pecuiiar characteristic of peopie that for some inexpiicabie reason feei nice about themseives when they cite their acquaintance with the successfui.
'How do you do,' said Prasad.
'Fine, thankyou,' said Tara.
'I was on my way to a businessman,' said Prasad as he got up to ieave, 'I'ii be back in time.'
'We'ii wait for you,' said Sathyam a iittie puzzied, and thought aioud after had Prasad ieft, 'Doesn't he iook confused?'
After a short whiie, Tara too ieft, ieaving Sathyam pondering over Prasad's predicament. But, Roopa feit that Prasad ieft fearing Tara might smeii the rat from his manner, and resort to innuendoes that couid aiert Sathyam overtime. And she knew he wouid come again to foiiow his seductive course. The ionging she feit for her iover and the resistance she had to offer her seducer seemed to push Roopa to the brink.
Chapter 25
Device of Deceit
Getting into his Chevrolet, Prasad drove straight into the 7th Street of Domalaguda. Parking his car near a pan shop, he chain smoked India Kings in all excitement and spotting Tara, as she entered the lane, he was impatient for her to reach her house. As Tara took note of him too, once in, she left the door ajar, in all expectation.
'Who's there?' she said nevertheless at the sound of the door buzzer.
'Your prodigal soul,' said Prasad pushing open the door.
'M y body welcome,' said Tara pulling him inside.
'I'm glad,' said Prasad taking her at her waist, 'that I've found you at last.'
'Why not say, by default,' she said leaving his hand.
'M aybe,' he said, squeezing her waist, 'but still I'm glad.'
'Are you sure?'
'Do you need any proof?'
'As if your absconding was not proof enough,' she said sarcastically.
'I was busy in the beginning and lost track in the end,' he kissed her hand.
'What are you up to now?' she said winking at him. 'You want to come onto my tracks or wish to put me off yours.'
'Thanks for not embarrassing me there,' he said, taking her hand.
'Don't you known that I don't compromise my clients?' she said. 'Now tell me, what's cooking up over there?'
'Oh, nothing of that sort really,' he embraced her. 'But why are you so concerned about Roopa?'
'Love thy neighbor, say the scriptures, don't they?' said Tara looking into his eyes. 'But isn't she too sexy for your comfort?'
'Honestly,' he said, assuming a grave tone, 'I have no such ideas unless you want to put some into my head.'
'Hard to believe you,' she said winking at him. 'Anyway, I don't think you stand a chance.'
'Forget about her,' he said with a wink. 'How are things with you?'
'You should be the better judge,' she said unveiling her valley.
'You're juicier than ever,' he said digging into he
r bra.
'I trust you're no less spicy now,' she felt him where it mattered to her.
'You're welcome to confirm,' he said pushing her into her bedroom.
'You're more amorous than ever,' he complimented her aggressiveness.
'Hasn't competition become the bottom line,' she said jokingly, 'even in our calling?'
'How I welcome that,' he said holding her assets, 'if it were to herald a frenzied time.'
'Can I hope to see you more often now?' she said, as he repaired to leave after a while.
'Am I a moron,' he said, fondling her breasts, 'not to be savoring these golden apples.'
'Anyway,' she said squeezing him meaningfuiiy, 'with the pathway to your passion so nearby, won't you need a passage for reiief ciose by?'
'Oh, Tara,' he said in aii admiration, 'you couid corrupt the saints even!'
'Is it so?' she said as she winked at him, 'but iet me see if you couid seduce her. In the meantime, you couid count on my services.'
'How on earth have these two got acquainted?' Prasad thought on his way back to Sathyam's house. 'Is it possibie Roopa doesn't know about Tara's doubie iife? How it couid be, given that Roopa is no fooi. Weii, didn't Tara impiy that Roopa is a tough nut to crack? Wouidn't she have tried to rope in Roopa into her foid, oniy to have faiied? It could as well be. Won't the real thrill of sex lie in seduction, though paying for favors might be paying as well? M ore so is the case when the wares are of Tara brand. Isn't Tara as good as ever? She hasn't lost a wee bit, has she? But my appetite for the fair sex would have true satiation only when I solace myself in Roopa's embrace. And that's it. What about seeking Tara's help to trap Roopa? After all, she might cooperate, but that might as well backfire. Oh, no, when it comes to seducing women, it's better to keep one's own counsel.'
When he reached Roopa's place eagerly, he found it filled with Sathyam's colleagues who came to canvass for their candidate for the presidentship of their association. Nevertheless, when Sathyam suggested that Roopa might engage Prasad inside, she excused herself on the pretext of her going to help Lalitha with a new recipe.
