Story Introduction
The mirror in Madhuri's bedroom was her silent confidant. One fine morning, she stood before it, adjusting the pleats of her emerald-green saree, the silk hugging her thick, curvy figure like a lover's embrace.
At 5'7", she towered over most women in her luxury Banjara Hills neighborhood, her 36D breasts straining against her blouse, a sight that made her husband Ramesh's colleagues stutter during dinner parties.
Her long, straight nose flared slightly as she dabbed rose-scented perfume on her neck, her plump lips--juicy as petals--curving into a proud smile. She knew she was beautiful.
"I'm a living poem, aren't I?" she murmured to her reflection, her brown eyes glinting with a mix of arrogance and longing.
Beauty was her armor, her shield against the whispers of a society that demanded she be nothing more than a devoted wife and mother.
Every man who stared too long, every jealous glance from a friend's husband--it fueled her.
Ramesh might not satisfy her anymore, his 5-inch efforts fading into a limp memory, but she didn't need him to. Her allure was enough. Or so she told herself.
Deep inside, though, a storm raged. Madhuri was 36, and her body ached in ways she couldn't explain. She'd never had an orgasm--didn't even know what it felt like--but that night, when Ramesh snored beside her, her fingers would drift beneath her nightie. She'd stop just short, guilt flooding her.
"No, this is wrong. A pure woman shouldn't crave such things," she tried to convince herself, pulling her hand away.
She is an ambitious woman working as a consultant in an MNC. Her boss, a wiry man with a perpetual frown, ruled from his corner office, obsessed with billable hours and client schmoozing.
Meetings were a marathon of PowerPoint slides and forced nods, where she often sat at the head of the table, cutting through the jargon with a razor-sharp stare. The work itself was relentless--strategy decks, market analyses, late nights--but she thrived in the grind.
Next day at her office, the hum of ambition was as constant as the air conditioning.
When a junior associate flirted with her over coffee that morning, saying, "Hey ma'am, you make work worth coming to!"
She'd scoff, "Keep your eyes on the files, not me."
Her voice was firm, but her thighs clenched under the desk.