This is the true narration of a happening in my life. Off course I know that I am not a professional writer nor do I claim it but sure thing is that I have tried to write it down as it happened with the help of some understanding of basic human nature and some of my assumptions and imagination of what goes in human mind in some given particular moments, still keeping the truthfulness of the story. The names have been changed, off course the obvious reasons.
It has been raining; rather say down pouring for almost 3 days in New Delhi now. But that is the month when the Mother Nature does that every year in those months. After the burning heat of the summer it was a great change and one could almost smell the muddy wet fresh fragrance in the air and the moisture present in the air teasing the skin to soft touch sensitivity.
Anita stood in her balcony of the flat on the third floor of the apartment building with her cup of mint tea, sipping it slowly and surveying things around her. This was her daily ritual after getting up in the morning. Similar surroundings, familiar faces, similar type of early morning movements of people, children out to go to school and all routine things, which she was so used to see all the days. Then her eyes drifted to the flat below and that was when she saw some thing different from the other days. The fellow who used to be there every morning doing his morning exercise was not there. For the past six months since the man in the flat directly below hers moved in, she has noticed that he did his workout in the morning without fail and it showed in his physique, he was a well built man and it was hard to find even a trace of body fat. He had the physic of a model with stomach muscles quite visible.
That was one major part of the sight seeing Anita used to come out in the mornings at this particular time. She did not know anything about the person in the apartment below, not even the name of the person. But that did not matter as knowing the name of the person would not have decreased the fun that she was getting from the “sight seeing”. She was pretty sure that she was always unobserved by him watching him in the mornings as she was on two floors above him and in the shade of the balcony plants.
Not seeing the person in the balcony disappointed Anita and all of a sudden she realized that how much the “sight seeing” has become the part of her life giving her whatever good she could get. Anyway there was nothing much left in the life of Anita after the demise of her husband. Till the time her husband was alive she had a rather good life. A good loving husband, enough money to buy most of the good things and small luxuries, safe future and good fulfilling sex. That time she used to think that how much she needed her husband and all the things that comes with husband including sex. Few months after the death of her husband she realized it that although the husband was gone but the needs that became part of her life due to the husband still exists. Luckily she was financially secure; late husband was a smart man to look for future safety. She invested the legacy money in such a way so that she kept on getting the regular income on the monthly bases while the original amount was safe.
But life needs more than the financial security. A widow at the age of 32 surely needs more than the money to make life feel like living. With the social taboos and the restrictions that comes as part of the social “package” for a widow in Indian society, she found it impossible for her to look for “alternatives” to keep her satisfied other then the occasional sex fantasy dreaming and masturbating either with fingers or some other objects. But as all will surely agree, that is not the “real thing” to bring the “real joy”, that too when you know what real thing and real happiness is.
She used to dream about a lot of people making love to her but since the person had moved in the apartment below her, he had been her lover in the dreams most of the times. Having watched him exercise in shorts and his moving strong muscles that was the picture too vivid in her mind and was most of the times part of her masturbating practice.
But he was not there today morning, the first time since he moved in! Disappointed she tried to think of other things but her mind kept on coming back to the person.
“Ting-tong-ting-tong…………”
It broke her thinking and then she realized that it was the doorbell. She did not know how many times the bell already was rung.
“Coming…” she said and moved to the door thinking that it was her maid to do the house-cleaning job.
She opened the door and saw the person from the apartment standing there.
“Good morning!” He said.
“I am sorry to bother you with this. I live in the apartment below you and my name is Rakesh. Unfortunately today due to the rain my newspaperman and the milkman has not come and I am left high and dry for a cup of tea. If it is not a bother to you can I borrow some milk from you so that at least I can say thank you to some one. I did not say thank you to my milkman and the newspaperman.” He said that with a shy and sorry smile.
“Sure, come in.” Anita said.
She was a sort of breathless having seen him so close. Her heartbeat was a little high.
Rakesh came in, hesitant and a little shy.
“In fact I was about to make some tea for myself too. Would you like some?”
She said that and then added “Sure you can take the milk too and then make some tea of your own in your house if you think that I did not make a good mint tea!”
“Oh.. Well that would be nice but I don’t want to be invading you like that. Asking for the milk too is already enough embarrassment for me.”
“Oh.. no. In fact you will do me a favor by sitting and having a cup of tea with me. You don’t know how boring it can be to be all by yourself all day. Please…….”
That did it. Rakesh sat down on the sofa in the room.
They started talking about anything and everything. Slowly the conversation did put them at ease with each other, without getting too personnel they introduced themselves and then she came to know that he was still unmarried at the age of 34 and worked as a hotel manager in one five star hotel. It was his day off. He was a career-oriented person and his career never gave him time to seriously think about marriage.
“I will come back in two minutes!” Anita said.
Before Rakesh could utter something, she was gone.
Anita was feeling very happy for some reason.
After a few minutes she came back with the breakfast in one tray and placed it in front to Rakesh.
“Ok we had morning tea together so lets eat breakfast together.” She said.
“Wow! It is so nice for you offer me that but I feel bad that already you have taken so much of trouble for me! Now this!”
“Please……” that’s all Anita said. “And more over you have your day off today so spend some time here. I get bored all day with any visitor hardly. And you shall sure get to know your neighbors. You never know when you may need their help, just like this morning.”