This is another Durga Puja story that I write whenever the festival comes around because it reminds of Puja Issues of Bengali magazines. But this time because of the pandemic and related problems, the novel has got terribly delayed. Here the sex is slow and more in the mind and in the dialogues that I have written in Bengali. If this makes you impatient, I humbly suggest that you pass this story over and look elsewhere.
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It was eight o'clock on a Saturday evening, and Ritam and his aunt Rupa were on their way back from the Hatibagan market after one more round of Puja Shopping. Durga Puja, the annual autumnal carnival of Bengal was round the corner and the usual shopping spree was on. But in addition to the standard clothes and dresses that people buy, today, aunt and nephew had bought stuff that was a little different. That was because they had some interesting ideas for the Puja season.
Ritam lived with his parents, Rita and Uttam in a large house that they shared with his uncle Satyam and his wife Rupa. This house was located in a typical North Calcutta neighbourhood in the Sovabazar area. Ritam was tall and well built and had a baby-like face that made him appear far more innocent than what he really was. Rupa was a little petite but her sharply chiselled features and dusky complexion gave her a smouldering sex appeal. She had thick, long hair that any red-blooded man would have liked to run his fingers through even though they had started showing a few streaks of grey. The two families lived on two separate floors and were a joint family in the sense that they shared a common kitchen. But as in any other Bengali middle class family there were several undercurrents that would not have been easily evident to an outsider.
Uttam was a learned and erudite person but due to a number of body blows that fate had delivered to his career, he found himself as a school teacher in a government school. This gave him a decent salary and a little respect but was a reason of great disappointment for his wife Rita who came from a very rich family of lawyers and doctors of South Calcutta. She had never forgiven her father for marrying her off at the tender age of eighteen to what she referred to as the congested cesspool of North Calcutta. Actually her father did not have a choice after his daughter's licentious ways had got her pregnant at a one night stand and he had to hush it up. She might still have accepted her situation had Uttam been a corporate professional with, say, a membership in one of the exclusive British era clubs. But of course that was impossible for a teacher in a government school and Uttam's only memberships were restricted to that of public libraries because he was a voracious reader. So Rita was generally pissed off with her life in Sovabazar and spent most of her time at her father's palatial house in Alipore. As the darling daughter of a very rich man she always had a car and driver at her service that allowed her to live an active social life with friends, malls, movies and kitty parties. Rita's marriage to Uttam and her son Rita were just a figleaf of bare respectability that hid the wild lifestyle that she loved to live in.
Uttam's elder brother Satyam, who was nearly twenty years older to him, was a typical well-to-do businessman running a large trading house. This gave him ample cash but not any great social status. Rupa was his second wife, nearly fifteen years younger, whom he had married more as a cook, a housekeeper and a nanny for his two sons by his first wife who had died young. But both these sons had been sent away to a residential, public school in Darjeeling where they had grown up as spoilt brats. They were now spending more of their father's money in some worthless Australian college.
Which would have been fine for Rupa but for the fact that Satyam was noted philanderer who spent most of his evenings with his bevy of TV starlets in another house of his in Salt Lake. In fact he was obsessed with cinema and TV actresses and would often boast how he had actually fucked both Rupa Sen and Riya Ganguly, the two most high profile actresses in Bengal who were said to be available for a fee. Had it not been for his trading business that was run out of the ground floor of their Sovabazar residence, he may not have been at home at all. Which was good for our Rupa because while she had all the sexual urges of a normal woman of 45, Satyam treated her like a piece of shit when he had to be at home. Once drunk, he would get physical if not actually sadistic with Rupa, as Ritam had realised one day.
Despite losing both her parents at a young age, Rupa had been a happy-go-lucky girl who had been brought up by her maternal uncle in Fraserganj, near Bakkhali right on the Bay of Bengal. To save on the expenditure of sending her to college, her uncle had married her off at an early age to the old widower Satyam who was actually looking for a maid to mind his house while he could horse around with his partners. Rupa had tried her best to engage Satyam but had soon realised that this was impossible. But instead of resigning herself to her fate, she kept herself busy with books and magazines. She was very well read and had a sharp and lively intellect.
Befriended and encouraged by Uttam, her ThakurPo, or "son-of-my-father-in-law" in colloquial Bengali, she had completed a bachelors' degree from an Open University and had then immersed herself in online and offline media, magazines, novels, movies and TV shows. She was clued in to all the salacious rumours in social circles that she lapped up from every racy magazine that she could lay her hands on. In fact, she had tried to share and discuss these scandalous news with her brother-in-law who was junior to her by five years, but unfortunately, the ThakurPo was a bit of a puritan in such matters. Either he was scared of his haughty and beautiful wife, even though she did not care about him at all, or he did not know how to handle even the mild flirts that Rupa threw at him. All that left Rupa with a void in her heart, if not at her crotch as well, that she kept hoping that Satyam would fill some day, even if it meant enduring some of his brutality.
But what really kept her going was the kid Ritam who trotted along with her all the time. With his mother always away and his father meeting him only to help him with his studies, Ritam looked up to Rupa as his de-facto mother and then something more. Rupa, whom he called Jet, short for Jethima or aunt, was his friend, philosopher and guide in more ways than one. In fact, even though he had his own room on the same floor as his parents, he would more often than not be found with his Jet in the kitchen, the dining room or in her rooms on the floor above theirs. When he was really small, Jet would bathe his little nephew in her own bathroom and he would prance around in the nude trying to evade her until she caught up with him and put him under the shower. In the process, Rupa too would get wet and more than once she had to take off some or most of her own clothes as well. On Sundays and other holidays, Rupa would take Ritam to her bed during her afternoon siesta. Then she would kiss and pat him to sleep before taking out her raunchy magazines and fingering herself to her personal release. Once in a while Ritam would find a long fat radish, or a big orange carrot in her bedroom that Rupa would explain away by saying that eating such stuff was good for health. But later on Ritam had figured out what they were for.
When Ritam was really small he would slide his tiny hands under her blouse and fondle Rupa's breasts. Rupa would of course allow him because it made her feel like a mother that she knew she would never be with Satyam. But then again it was not pure motherly affections because as Ritam grew older and bigger there was a perceptible change on both sides. Ritam would have been exposed to the language and literature that was common in high school and his ministrations were no more as innocent as they once were and for Rupa, it was always a pleasure to have someone feel her body over, even if innocently. With the passage of time and the erosion of innocence, Ritam would let his hands roam not just over her breasts but would also tweak her nipples -- Rupa would rarely be wearing a bra at home -- and then feel her tummy, her navel and then even lower. Rupa would wait until Ritam's hand was almost on her cunt and then, much to his dismay, she would either turn or gently push his hands away. Then of course there were these kisses that had begun as a game when Ritam was very small and was learning how to count. Before falling asleep, Ritam would hug Rupa tightly and kiss her once on her lips and then she would kiss him back twice and then he thrice and so on until they would reach twenty.
Years had passed and Ritam was doing quite well in school. But still on Sunday afternoons, they would have this kissing game and now of course the kisses were quite different and Rupa would end up both flustered and breathing heavily. Ritam would kiss her very passionately and mess up her hair and on more than one occasion, Rupa had felt his hands fondling her breasts and his erection prodding her at her crotch. Once in a while, Ritam would be really aggressive with his thrusts and Rupa would quietly indulge him. Neither Ritam and certainly not Rupa would admit to it but there was a strong current of passion -- erotic and sexual -- that had started to flow, waiting for a spark to ignite it. That spark happened a few days after Ritam's eighteenth birthday!
It was one of the few Saturday afternoons when Satyam was at home and there was this unwritten law that Ritam should not go to his aunt's floor when his uncle was there.
Many years ago, when he was much younger, he had wandered upstairs and had come back after hearing Rupa being fucked very noisily by Satyam behind the closed doors of their bedroom. Later on, he had innocently asked his aunt ..
āĻāϰā§āϰ āĻā§āϤāϰ āϤā§āĻŽāĻŋ āĻāϰ āĻā§āϝāĻžāĻ āĻž āĻ āϤ⧠āĻā§āĻāĻāĻžāĻā§āĻāĻŋāϞ⧠āĻā§āύ? Why were you and uncle shouting in the room?
āĻāϏāĻŦ āĻŦā§āĻĻā§āϰ āĻŦā§āϝāĻžāĻĒāĻžāϰ āĻŦāĻžāĻŦāĻž, āϤā§āĻ āĻŦā§āĻāĻŦāĻŋ āύāĻž āϏā§āύāĻž This is an adult matter that you will not understand sweetheart.
āĻŦāϞ āύāĻž, āĻāĻŋ āĻāϰāĻāĻŋāϞ⧠āϤā§āĻŽāϰāĻž? Please tell me what were you doing? he had insisted.
āϤā§āϰ āĻā§āϝāĻžāĻ āĻž āĻāĻŽāĻžā§ āĻāĻĻāϰ āĻāϰāĻāĻŋāϞ Your uncle was making love to me.
āϝā§āĻŽāύ āĻāĻŽāĻŋ āϤā§āĻŽāĻžā§ āĻāϰāĻŋ? āĻāĻŋāύā§āϤ⧠āϤāĻāύ āϤ⧠āϤā§āĻŽāĻŋ āĻāϤ āĻā§āϰ⧠āĻāĻŋāϤāĻāĻžāϰ āĻāϰ⧠āύāĻžāĨ¤ The way I love you? But then you do not scream!
āĻāϰ āĻāĻāĻā§ āĻŦā§ āĻšāϞ⧠āϏāĻŦ āĻŦā§āĻāϤ⧠āĻĒāĻžāϰāĻŦāĻŋ āĻŦāĻžāĻŦāĻž āĨ¤ You will understand this once you grow up, sweetheart.
āĻāϰ āĻļā§āύ, and listen, she had smiled. āϤā§āϰ āĻā§āϝāĻžāĻ āĻž āĻĨāĻžāĻāϞ⧠āϤā§āĻ āĻāĻĒāϰ⧠āĻāϏāĻŋāϏ āύāĻž, āĻāĻŽāĻŋ āύāĻž āĻĄāĻžāĻāϞā§āĨ¤ Do not come up to my floor when your uncle is here, unless I call you.
Today,Ritam was watching the TV in their living room when there was a hushed whisper, calling him.
āĻāĻ āϰāĻŋāĻ āĻāĻ āĻŦāĻžāϰ āĻāĻĒāϰ⧠āĻāϏāĻŦāĻŋ? Hey Rit, that was she called him, can you please come upstairs once.
Rupa was standing at the doorway and Ritam realised with a start that she was wearing nothing but a thin slip, what they call a nightie in Calcutta, through which her naked body was clearly visible against the afternoon light. What was more shocking, or rather interesting, was that the nightie only went down to her thighs and the upper part was wet enough for her nipples to be clearly visible.
āĻāĻŋ āĻšā§ā§āĻā§ āĻā§āĻ, āĻāĻŋ āĻšā§ā§āĻā§? What happened Jet, what happened?