Benign Flame Saga Of Love In Chapters Format

by BS Murthy

  'Oh, how true,' she said caressing his chest.

  When they bathed together in the evening, wanting to have him there too, she made him want her even more, and after bath as she started wearing the new Pochampaiiy, he ogied at her, as if she were new to him.

  'I'm sorry that you're caged here,' she said apoiogeticaiiy.

  'Why feei bad as its Cupid's own nest,' he said taking her into his arms. 'What a sexy captivity it is.'

  When she got into the kitchen to prepare dinner for them, he offered to heip her in the kitchen chores.

  'Why get tired here,' she took away the kitchen knife from him, 'when you've got to exert eisewhere.'

  'Wiii this do?' he said in smiie, as he squatted on thefioor, ieaning to the waii.

  That's fine,' she said, assuming the posture of a monitor with a iadie for the stick. 'But don't dare stir out from there.'

  'If you don't mind,' he said hesitantiy, 'teii me what went wrong with you and Sathyam.'

  'Won't I make my iife an open book for you,' she said. 'But why spoii our party with my probiems.'

  'Didn't I teii you I want you to be happiiy wed-iocked,' he said concernediy. 'Let's see if we can improve things between you and him as weii.'

  'I'm happy you care,' as she said, she went up to him to kiss.

  Whiie she prepared their meai, she narrated her iife and times, and said in the end, 'I've only to blame myself, for I never made him feel wanted.'

  'I'm sure,' he said, caressing her affectionately, 'on his return; he would come across a different wife.'

  'To be honest with you, I could never love him the way I dreamt of loving the male,' she said, cuddling herself in his embrace. 'I shouldn't have married him at all. That was the blunder of my life. It's in a void that I lived till you swept me off my feet on that fateful 6th of June. Having got you after all that craving, I should have cared two hoots for him. But as you've opened my eyes to the real meaning of our love life, I shall open my heart to him as well. Now, I'm full of hope as your love has given me zest for life.'

  'I would love to see,' he said reaching for her lips, 'that day dawning soon in his life.'

  'Raja, I'm really proud of you,' she said hugging him tightly as he released her lips. 'I'll bring that about, if only to prove the power of our love. I thought about what you've said and realized that it makes sense. As you've pictured the sentimental aspects so clearly, I could see the practical utility of it all. After all, adultery could be a double jeopardy for women, as liaisons wouldn't address the marital irritants that push women into alien arms. To make it worse for women, affairs induce a feeling of guilt in them, pricking their conscience all the time. So, while still having to endure that which made them adulterous, women in liaison find themselves carrying the cross of infidelity as well. Besides, in time, the fear of exposure, imparts dullness to their sense of excitement, and that robs them of the thrills on the frills. When in the end, the inevitable desertion is on hand; won't women wonder about the futility of it all? And it looks like your idea could be a via media. Oh, how I feel enslaved by your intellectual love.'

  'I'm proud of you Roopa,' he kissed her ardently. 'How nicely you've analyzed it all. I couldn't delve that deep anyway.'

  'With all that rubbing we've been having,' she said joyously, 'a little of your intellect could have seeped into me.'

  'Add that to your charms and love, won't you enslave me,' he said in admiration, and added in jest. 'But do spare me for I've to serve her as well.'

  'Don't worry, by lending my helping hand. I'll help you serve her better,' she said as she winked at him, and thought, 'How unique my life is! Isn't it thrilling to have a man and his wife for lovers without the other being in the know? Oh, how exciting it is, being in the eye of the love storm.'

  'Let me see your course material,' he said, as they came out of the kitchen in the end.

  'I know from your letters to Sandhya that your pen carries the beauty of your hand,' he said, as she showed him her notes eagerly.

  'How can I ever show you,' she said leaning on him, 'the volume in my heart that I've penned with your name. Know it's my Rama Koti of love.'

  'Oh Roopa,' he said, hugging her, 'How I would love to have your letter on hand, as I reach Delhi from Kakinada.'

  'After all this, nothing else is going to interest me anymore,' she said coyly. 'So my boy, I would have nothing to write to you.'

  'Why,' he said, 'surely you can picture your reflections of our union for one.'

  'As if you haven't seen them all,' she sank into his lap.

  'Being unlucky in love,' he said reflectively, 'I never had any love letter to read. When I saw Sandhya, I wanted her in my life well before love entered my head. With you, as you know, I lost my heart to love at first sight. In a way, you're the first woman I loved and had. If you feel it's not risky, we could correspond till we come here.'

  'I'm happy being special to you but I feel sad that you had to wait for so long to lovemate,' she said cajolingly, and added in disappointment, 'Yet, I don't want some postal mishap ruining our love.'

  'All the same, you can write, if not receive,' he said, and added in jest, 'If you fail to post your letter. I'll send you a reminder.'

  'Blackmail,' she smiled.

  'Lovemail,' he laughed.

  'Okay boss,' she said in all seriousness, 'but tell me how I can assist you at work.'

  'With your presence itself,' he said thoughtfully. 'I'm really hopeful that we three could make it work. Your general abilities and her creative capabilities should do wonders for us.'

  'With two women backing your genius,' she said in all admiration, 'I'm sure we would succeed.'

  'Don't be lavish in your praises,' he said unpretentiously. 'If only something goes on smoothly for some length of time at least, can one say that some genius is at work there. Well, we haven't even started.'

  'I've a hunch that our sufferings are behind us,' she said exuding optimism. 'I'm sure that a rosy future awaits us.'

  'But what of the present,' he said ardently.

  'Well, it's in our mating, isn't it?' she said amorously.

  In the ecstasy of their lovemaking quite a lot of midnight oil was burnt that night as well.

  Waking up at his honeymoon time of nine. Raja Rao tiptoed into the kitchen to surprise Roopa. When he laced her at her back, she lay smug in his embrace for long.

  'What's for the day darling?' he crooned into her ears at length.

  'Why not a Lambretta ride,' she said as she had an agenda on hand, 'all the way to wilderness.'

  'It's an idea,' he got excited, but said on second thoughts. 'What if Lalitha gets wind of it and alerts Sathyam?'

  'I couldn't care less for once,' she said nonchalantly. 'If It comes to that, won't I make up something for an explanation?'

  'Oh, what a perfect ten you are!' he said, watching her wear the brown Venkatagirl sari

  'But Sandhya Is ten plus one,' she said. 'Well, 1 mean It.'

  'You're the passion of my life providing the life-force,' he said contemplatively. 'And she sustains that to solace me In life. Oh, how you complement each other to make It a meaningful life forme.'

  'Why not a menage a trols then,' she said enticingly.

  'Not that I want It any less that to happen,' he said taking her hand Into his, 'but what I seek more Is that you succeed with Sathyam.'

  'Though 1 would love to live with you,' she said, moved no end, '1 would try to make myself more eager towards him. If only as a tribute to our love.'

  When they stepped out of the house and got onto Sathyam's Lambretta for a ride Into the wilderness, riding the pillion, as they crossed the city limits, she enlaced him eagerly.

  'Oh,' he said, without turning back, 'how pleasantly hard It Is.'

  'It's my dream ride,' she hugged him closer. 'Take me to some no man's land.'

  When he finally stopped the vehicle near Shamirpet, she spotted a place yonder for their rendezvous. Spreading a bed sheet under a banyan tree, they
sat for a session of sweet nothings, and having eaten some rotls with dalfry bought at a dhaba on their way, they settled for siesta. No sooner they woke up than she goaded him to move around the place 'like grazing cows'.

  'You're crazy really,' he said.

  'Am 1 not In love?' she walked nonchalantly ahead of him.

  Soon spotting a mango grove, she ran towards It, dragging him all the way and as they entered the grove, leaving him perplexed on the ground, she climbed up a wellgrown tree. When she perched herself on a low branch, and Invited him to join her there, he obliged her saying, 'How you amaze me!'

  'Oh,' she said cuddling him In delight, 'how you brought out the real me.'

  'Roopa,' he said holding her dearly, 'even In the wildest of my dreams, I haven't Imagined anything near this.'

  'Oh, how 1 feel the animal In me coming to the fore now,' she jumped down, pulling him along. 'Couple with me the animal way.'

  'Now I'm feeling,' he said lovingly, 'that you've become truly Insane.'

  'True, but then, I am a woman In love, am I not?' she said excitedly. 'I want you to lay me at every place where I'd craved for you. Maybe, It's the only way I might be able to erase those painful memories of pining for you. How I wish you stayed put In me. Why has not nature made It that way?'

  'Oh, to be wanted like this,' he said, as he followed her bidding, 'Is divine Indeed.'

  In the end, as the sun was all set to cross the horizon, they rushed back to the city, as If to beat It at Its own game. But once they reached Paradise, they stopped for a cup of Irani chal that they shared by the roadside. Thereafter, having loitered on the Tank Bund for a while, on their way back home, he picked up four bottles of King Fisher.

  'Are you going to gobble up all that beer?' she said surprised.

  'I thought we might share,' he said tantalizingly.

  'Does it help me too?' she winked.

  'Yes, to take the stuffing out of me,' he said in smile.

  Reaching home, they were relieved at finding a padlock on the landlord's door.

  'Seems my bad-luck is a spent force now,' she said, touching the door before she opened it. 'Touch wood.'

  'That should auger well for our love life,' he said repeating the ritual.

  Having stuffed the beer bottles in the fridge, they went together into the bathroom for a shower. Though they went in together as if to save time, yet they took a long time coming out of it, to settle down on the bed readily for three cheers.

  'Isn't it bitter,' she said after the first sip.

  'You would feel better,' he said in encouragement, 'after a gulp or more.'

  'I know it would be better for me,' she smiled, 'even without me drinking it.'

  'You are impossible,' he said.

  'Like Sandhya, you mean,' she said, smiling.

  'Did she tell you she likes her peg having my peg?' he said with a glint in his eye.

  'Why should I betray her secrets,' she said in mirth, 'even to her man.'

  Soon as she lay in his lap, she retched, and he had his hands stretched.

  'Oh, I'm sorry,' she said in embarrassment as he wiped her mouth clean, he having cleaned his own hands before.

  'Why, haven't you taken all my cum?' he said, cuddling her in his embrace.

  'If not for that what for a woman is made?' she said smiling, looking into his eyes as he sought her lips eagerly.

  While he made love to her, she readily surrendered her soul to him while her body sought him even more eagerly.

  While she was at preparing meals for them, enjoying his drink, he kept her company in the kitchen, and as if the beer tasted better from his glass, she began to share it with him. Well, having been rejuvenated after dinner, they indulged themselves, as if there would be no sex life left after that night for them.

  When Roopa got up the next day, finding Raja Rao staring at her longingly, she felt as if she woke up from a dream.

  'Why stare at me,' she said, getting closer to him, 'as if I'm new to you?'

  'I'm not able to believe that all your beauty is mine,' he said, blowing into her navel.

  'Worried about the void you would leave in my life,' she said pensively, 'I couldn't sleep for long.'

  'Won't I be back in your arms before your love bites would lose their traces,' he said baring his chest.

  'How I wish I were a vampire,' she said biting him to the bones 'to live on your blood till then.'

  'Ooh.'

  'Oh, I'm sorry.'

  'You know Sandhya's delivery time is nearing,' he said still in pain. 'Don't fail to make it to the barasala at Kakinada.'

  'If it were with you in a 1st Class coupe for two,' she said, and got excited about it, 'while make some coffee for us, think how to go about it.'

  While preparing the coffee and picturing their togetherness on the train, she recalled her weird experience in the coupe, and as if the milk on the burner too shared her urge to narrate the episode to her lover, it boiled itself in double quick time.

  'That's what life is all about, stranger than fiction, as they say,' he said at her recap, trying to figure out the embarrassment she might have felt then. 'Do check below the berths before all else.'

  'That is all about once bitten twice shy,' she said eagerly. 'But do tell me how we get in there in the first place.'

  'Book a coupe for us in the Godavari, party joining at Kazipet,' he explained as they had coffee. 'You ring me up so that I too can book my ticket as well. Since, Sathyam would be with you till the train moves out, you book another ticket for you by sleeper class. Then at Kazipet, we would move into the Cupid's Corner.'

  'What a love on wheels that would be!' she hugged him, spilling the dregs on him.

  'Haven't you made it memorable even before we got started,' he said rushing into the bathroom.

  When the clock struck eleven, it occurred to her that in its forward march time would abet her lover to leave her for his wife's place that evening, and that made her morose.

  'Cheer up Roopa,' he said at last, 'If you sulk, that would only make it worse forme.'

  'M aybe, you can measure my love on the scale of your misery,' she sighed.

  'How true,' he said, hugging her.

  'You can't separate love and anxiety in a woman's heart,' she said, tightening her grip on him.

  'That's why love is painfully sweet,' he kissed her tears, 'and salty too.'

  By the time they reached the Secunderabad Railway Station in the evening, Roopa began to see Raja Rao's impending departure as a necessary evil to their forthcoming togetherness.

  'As you make love to her,' she whispered to him in the din of the arriving train, 'give my love to Sandhya.'

  When the Godavari Express languidly pulled out of that railway station, gazing at him lovingly, she waved at him furiously. If only her sense of longing for her lover had acquired a physical dimension, probably the train, in spite of its diesel power, wouldn't have moved an inch forward.

  Chapter 30

  Euphoric Forays

  The Godavari Express that Roopa boarded at Secunderabad that September evening seemed to have been powered by the pull of her passion. As it raced on the rails, the sound of its vibrations synchronized with the pounding of her heart beats but when the

  train came to a halt at Kazipet ending her two-hour long anxiety, it didn't take long for Roopa to jump into the waiting arms of Raja Rao.

  'I was afraid,' she said, hugging him, 'about your train reaching in time.'

  'How did you think that I could have left that to chance?' he said, patting her head. 'I reached here yesterday.'

  'Oh, sorry,' she said, not hiding her happiness.

  'What is it before that year-long waiting,' he crooned into her ear.

  As they reached the first class bogie, she pulled him towards the farthest entrance.

  'I've something to show you,' she said

  'Can't you wait till we get in?' he winked at her.

  'It's a special from the Indian Railways for us,' she said, and
read aloud from the passenger chart pasted over there.

  M R. RAJA RAO

  M RS. ROOPA RAO

  'You know how to feel love,' he said pressing her shoulder, 'and express it as well.'

  'I'm glad you appreciate it,' she looked at him lovingly. 'Don't they make a bold statement in those bold letters?'

  'Either in small print,' he said lovingly, 'it makes no difference to our lovesick eyes.'

  'Of brave souls, that is.'

  'True,' he said.

  'How are you dear?' she asked him when they settled down in the coupe.

  'Don't you worry. I'm in fine shape,' he said winking at her and added. 'How are things with you?'

  'Don't you find me happy?'

  'How can I miss your radiance,' he said taking her hand. 'But what about your home work.'

  'He became homebody all again,' she said in all smiles. 'Well, with bottle for company, whatever, at last, I could make him feel at home in his home. Anyway, you're going to meet him soon.'

  'I'm glad at the development,' he said with an apparent satisfaction. 'How I would like to befriend him.'

  'Why buy a headache?' she smiled.

  'What could be worse than the heartache we've had,' he said squeezing her hand. 'Oh, how I shudder to think of those days.'

  'What about these days?' resting on his shoulder she caressed his chest.

  'Don't you see that my cup of joy is overflowing?' he said reaching for her lips.

  'As I got the news of the new arrival,' she said, 'I felt as if I were her mother, since you are her father.'

  'That means,' he said smilingly, 'she will have a double protection against my pampering.'

  'Before I forget,' she said excitedly, 'especially since these days, everyone complains that I've become very forgetful.'

  'Lost in love!' he said, interrupting her.

  'Don't you know that?' she said. 'I've paid the advance for your office as well as her Sweet Home, both in Himayatnagar. You can occupy them any time next month.'

  'So, you've got the sets ready,' he said pinching her crotch, 'to begin the shoot.'

  Shortly thereafter, the TIE had come and gone, leaving them on their own. Having bolted the door. Raja Rao opened his suitcase, and pulled out an 'Intimate'.