(An extract from a Current Untitled Project of mine. Please note that the Tale narrated below is purely a work of Fiction.)
Ram’s parents, brother and sister took advantage of the New Year holidays to visit their hometown in the hinterland leaving Ram in charge of their flat since Ram’s college would reopen on the 2nd of January itself. Ram’s family planned to stay in their hometown till the Pongal Holidays which was during the middle of January.
Ram was therefore in charge of his house for nearly a month and his friends were delighted to find a more comfortable hangout than their normal location atop the compound wall or the pavement railings.
On New Year’s Eve the boys decided that they should have a party that night and obtain some booze in the black-market to celebrate, as the early seventies was a period of prohibition in the State. It must be mentioned here that most of the boys had never had a drink before except for Ram, Danny and Jay; a fellow classmate from college who agreed to procure the booze, for he proudly claimed to have underworld connections.
Jay was not a regular at the Government Colony Gang but used to occasionally visit when he was broke and had nothing better to do so that he could bum some chai and fags of the boys.
The boys pooled all their resources that evening and raised about four hundred and fifty rupees among themselves. Jay claimed that a Bottle of Brandy would cost two hundred rupees in the black-market and the boys handed over the same to Jay with an additional ten rupees for fuel since Jay had borrowed a friend’s scooter to go and pick up the booze.
The boys were restless while waiting for Jay to return for it was taking Jay a long time. Some of them even suggested that Jay had taken the money and vanished. It was after about two hours that Jay returned; fortunately for the boys he had managed to obtain a bottle of Brandy. It was a brand called “Bumblebee” and the boys had never heard of it for they were novices when it came to drinking. ?
It was around eight in the evening that the boys finally got to drink the booze. There were six of them and Ram managed to find the requisite glasses from his kitchen. Danny who was yet another of the six who drank that night had managed to slip over to a nearby shop and had got them some chips and murukku to go along with the booze.
The six of them managed to get about two large pegs each and they glugged them quickly in the hope of getting high quickly. In those days the tipplers of Madras did not bother about the etiquette of drinking and sipping slowly. They were only used to drinking in street corners and sleazy joints prone to raids by cops of the prohibition wing. They therefore developed awesome peripheral vision. They would furtively look to both sides and quickly gulp down the booze before they were noticed by the cops or some familiar faces on the street.
The booze began to tickle their insides and the boys hungrily gorged themselves on the chips and Murukku which Danny had the foresight to obtain. The boys were by now experiencing the high of the booze with the feeling of being on top of the world which makes any tippler think he can buy the world in the morning and sell it in the evening. ?
While the New Year’s Party had kicked off in style the boys were happily chatting among themselves when Ram suddenly said, “Wish we had a woman to share the fun”. ?
While the other boys winked at each other Sonny was puzzled by what Ram had said. “What do you mean? he demanded and Ram replied, “I meant it would be nice if we have a woman to have sex with”.
Sonny’s jaw dropped upon hearing this for Sonny had remained a virgin so far and had never considered making love that day. Mark you, Sonny was no prude and had indulged in his fair share of masturbation and fantasies but the actual thought of finally doing it petrified him.
Ram, Jay and Danny were obviously experts in such matters for they claimed to have a lot of experience with women while the other two boys who were with Sonny, namely, Babu and Shyam mentioned that they were not virgins but did not possess the kind of experience that the other three possessed.
It was Jay once again who said that he knew of a few whores and he could pick up one for a couple of hundred if the boys so desired. Sonny was against the idea but the intoxication of the other five clearly overruled him.
They tried to explain that the New Year would be an ideal time for Sonny to have his first sexual experience and lose his virginity. Jay was once again given two hundred rupees and the task of finding a suitable women for the endeavour. Jay took off immediately on his borrowed steed while the boys waited for him to return.
The time was now well past ten and the neighbourhood was all agog with the New Year revellers and the people who were going for the night show in the neighbouring theatre. Sonny wanted to return home before the paid woman arrived but his friends would not allow it.
He tried to explain that his parents would be waiting for him to go along with them to the midnight service at their church to ring in the New Year but the boys would not have any of it. They bullied, coaxed and cajoled him into staying behind.
The clock struck eleven and still there was no sign of Jay. A couple of the boys even began the old refrain that Jay had scooted with the money. Sonny silently kept praying that Jay should not return but it was not to be.
Jay returned with a woman a bit after eleven thirty. The woman was not at all what the boys had expected. She was rather middle aged, short and rotund and worst of all she had a small child in her arms when she entered the room.
The boys became agitated and pounced on Jay who said, “What could I do Machan! Today being New Year’s Eve, these girls are in great demand and this woman was the only one available at such short notice and I therefore brought her here.” ?
The only consolation for the boys was that the woman had agreed to service them all for a hundred and fifty rupees and the boys would be saving fifty rupees of their budgetary allocation.
The intoxication of the booze was now beginning to wear off and the boys were hesitant about copulating with a middle aged woman. They wanted to know why Jay had allowed her to bring the baby and Jay replied, Machaan! She has to feed the poor child every hour Macha! What could I do? I could not be so heartless as to deprive a child of its mother’s milk on New Year’s Eve!” ?
The boys really did not know what to say. Jay’s response was both funny and shocking at the same time. It was at this time that Danny queried, “Who is going to have her first?”
Sonny did not want to have anything to do with it and he refused to be listed in this initiative. “Count’ me out. I’m not going to lose my virginity to a whore!” he remarked.
After some heated deliberation it was decided that Ram would go first since he had provided his flat for the entertainment and had also contributed a major portion of the budget for the evening’s festivities. He would be followed by Jay who had taken the effort and Danny who was a senior in this kind of exercise. It would then be Babu and Shyam in that order.
The Boys shunted the woman into the adjoining bedroom and took position in the living room awaiting their turn. Ram returned to the living room after about ten minutes. He appeared to be drenched in sweat.
While Jay went into the bedroom Ram murmured, “Machaans! The woman may look old and fat but she sure knows how to make a Man happy! And the icing on the cake was the milk from her boobs!”
This visibly made the other boys agitated and eager to have their turn. Ram then turned to Sonny and said, “Dei! This is your best chance to lose your virginity and that too on an auspicious day like today. The woman is very experienced and will make it easy for you by guiding you on how to go about”. This really made Sonny’s mind waver.
Meanwhile Jay returned from the bedroom and was followed by Danny who returned rather quickly to allow Babu to go for it. Hearing all the boys exclaim about how good a lay this woman was; Sonny decided to have a go and lose his virginity that night.
Babu was soon followed by Shyam who came back rather quickly. It was now Sonny’s turn and all the boys cheered him on as he entered the bedroom. When he entered the bedroom he found the woman had slipped off her blouse and was feeding her child which was drinking hungrily from the Mother.
“Just a minute”, said the woman, “the child will not disturb us if it is well fed for it will then be deep asleep. Meanwhile, you can remove your clothes and come to the bed”, she continued.
Sonny’s hand trembled with nervousness and fear. He felt a knot in his tummy and a sensation of falling into a bottomless pit. He nervously told her, “Look, I’m here only because my friends forced me to. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything. I’ll just sit on this bedside chair and go back to my friends after a while. Please don’t tell my friends that I didn’t do anything”.
The woman let out an exasperated sigh as she forcibly pulled the greedy baby away from her left breast. “This is exactly what all your friends said as well!” she remarked sarcastically
“They all said they were here only because of the pressure from their friends and they also requested me not to tell their friends just like you now did” she continued. “All I wanted was to have some fun while being paid for it but I wound up with you guys. That too on New Year’s Eve night! What a way to start a New Year!’ she sighed. ?
Sonny’s face turned red upon listening to this. He felt relieved and betrayed at the same time. The woman then hurriedly fastened her blouse and set right her saree, “Now don’t you go and tell those boys what I told you. You seemed like a good sort and I therefore confided in you but if you spill the beans to that guy who brought me here he will not pay me” she pleaded.
Sonny assured her that he would not tell the others what she had told him and as it was now more than five minutes since he entered the bedroom he went out to join the other boys.
Sonny really had to make an effort not to burst out laughing and appear ecstatic at his maiden venture but he did not wish to embarrass or humiliate his friends and kept quiet while they all kept asking him about how it was and if it had been good.
Sonny mumbled about having had a great time. Jay then took the woman back to her brothel.
Well, Boys will be boys!
?P.S: I'm looking for some constructive feedback to help me improve my writing and look forward to hearing from you all.
