Some of you may have read my reminiscences of my early days as an academic in Melbourne, Australia where, in my story - 'Memoirs of a Baby-boomer academic Ch.1', I describe the intense relationship I had with a young Indian student called Diya. Our voracious sexual activities were sparked by her conviction that we had been lovers in an earlier life. While she knew that I thought her spiritual views more than likely represented mystical Asian self-indulgence, I was delighted to indulge clandestinely her enthusiastic spirit of sexual adventure. Unfortunately her family moved to Singapore at the end of the university year. After some increasingly desoltary correspondence over the next couple of years we ultimately lost touch.
She was far from my mind when more than 20 years later, shortly before the start of the school and university vacations in Victoria, my wife Lucy announced that she had agreed to take a school group to Kangaroo Island for a week. I was quite taken aback, as while I hadn't firmed up the arrangements, I had in mind that we'd make a visit for 10 days or so to the Northern Territory. Personally, I could think of few less appealing activities than taking a group of school children on a holiday nature expedition, but Lucy enjoyed it, and to be fair, was good at it, too. We had already planned to send our two teenagers to stay with Lucy's parents in the country for the vacation, a change from city life that they always welcomed.
Faced with a fait accompli, I decided to make the best use of a bad job. As the university had offered me a travel grant as part of my research obligation, I thought I'd see if I could usefully spend a week in an attractive location combining some legitimate study with relaxation in an interesting destination. Looking through the forthcoming literary-oriented conferences I noted one in my field in Singapore, entitled 'Linguistic Innovation in Shakespeare's Later Plays'. That would certainly meet the criteria specified in my case by the university and could even be of interest, I thought. In addition I was intrigued to see that one of the presenters was listed as Diya Kaur. Could that be my Diya, I wondered. The surname was different, but presumably she would have married some time during the last 20 years.
When nothing more appealing appeared as I continued searching, I decided to enrol even though it would cost me a late enrollment fee. My decision was influenced in part by the university's grants policy of use it or lose it. Like most people I wasn't keen on forfeiting a free airfare, even if I had to pay for my own accommodation at the conference, which was being held at a mid-range Singapore hotel.
To cut a long story short the presenter named Diya was, indeed, my former student and we found much to enjoy together which I'm happy to relate to you as the reader. When Diya learned that I had written a number of erotic stories she insisted that she be allowed to contribute as well to my account of our time together. I had no objection in principle, but as I usually wrote in the first person I was concerned as to how I could express her point of view. Diya offered an elegant solution - that as people who had made a living out of the study and use of language we could write in the third person, taking an eye of God approach to the events we were describing. Hence the following account -
Diya was unaware that her first and almost sole lover, Alex, from Melbourne, had enrolled as a conference participant, until her friend Pamela, the conference organiser, mentioned it.
"I see your old friend, Alex, from your year in Melbourne is coming. Unless you have some objection, I'll sit you together at the conference dinner, as he probably won't know too many of the other attendees, although I expect you'll have the opportunity to catch up with him before then at the pre-conference cocktail party, " she said.
Pamela was one of the very few friends in whom Diya had confided about her affair as a student with Alex. While Pamela had lived all her life in Singapore her parents were English, and they had inculcated in her a number of Anglo-Saxon values, one of which was the importance of respecting any information she heard in confidence. Diya knew better than to confide in any of her Punjabi friends as she was well aware that it would be foolish to rely on their discretion. Like the majority of the Indian community they delighted in exchanging salacious gossip, so silence was the best approach.
Ironically the only other friend who was aware of her earlier involvement with Alex was also attending the conference, as well. Indeed, Jackie was not only attending, but, in fact, staying at Diya's house as her guest for three days, after which the two of them had arranged to drive off across the causeway on a trip to spend a few days in Malaysia.
Diya was fully aware that her university colleagues regarded her friendship with Jackie as an attraction of opposites. While Diya was short with a substantial bust, and had lived the staid life of a mother of two children, now teenagers, for the best part of 20 years, Jackie was tall, slim and dramatic. Her west indian father had gifted her chocolate skin and springy black hair which she wore in afro style, while from her English mother she had inherited a general disregard for convention. On her secondment visit two years' earlier, she had been rostered to lecture with Diya. After some initial awkwardness they found that they shared the same sense of humour, and Diya delighted in Jackie's sense of the ridiculous.
They became firm friends, although Diya was initially disconcerted by Jackie's flamboyant bisexuality. Her exotic appearance meant that she was seldom short of admirers of both sexes. Diya couldn't help remarking that the more fascinated they became with her, the worse she treated them.
"Look," Jackie explained to Diya, "I tried the marriage thing, but once I started to earn more than him, he demanded money. I told him -"fuck you, I earned it, if you want more, get a better job yourself." He threatened to hit me, so I gave him the arse. Not before time, too. I then shared an apartment with a fellow lecturer, who introduced me to the pleasures of lesbian sex. I realised that there is a continuum, with unshakeable heterosexuals at one end and same sex enthusiasts at the other. But there's quite a number in the middle like me whose sexual orientation starts off focussed on one sex, usually through societal pressure but who may well swing one way or the other depending on opportunity and the sexual appeal of the person that you are involved with.
"For me, I'm happy to swing both ways, but I'm out for pleasure, not to convert anyone." Diya wasn't clear whether Jackie's comments contained a subtle invitation, but in any event her lack of a positive response did not affect their close friendship.
Diya collected Jackie from the airport after her overnight flight from London. After a relaxing lunch Jackie retired for a brief snooze, while Diya prepared for the pre-conference cocktail party. From the time she had learned that Alex was attending she found herself deeply unsettled. Initially, after moving to Singapore from Melbourne she had found their separation very difficult, and had masturbated most nights fantasising of rejoining Alex in Melbourne. Her inability to confide in anyone made her distress feel worse, but eventually the pressure of study and the demands of everyday life in the Punjabi community in Singapore deadened her sense of loss.
When, shortly after graduating, her parents proposed that she marry an attractive young military officer, the son of a business associate of her father's, she thought, why not? The idea of children and a stable family life had its attractions. After insisting that she be free to continue her honours study at university, and that her parents be released from any obligation to pay a dowry, she indicated her consent.
