Rescuing Marriage in One Sure Step

Sharmi was visiting Mithu. They often exchange visits in the post lunch hours. Both were not into the habit of siesta. They were friends from school days and as they lived at two ends of the same street in T-Nagar Chennai they could continue their friendship. Sharmi's husband Damu and Mithu's husband Sudir, both managers in business firms were friends too. They take tours together the latest being a week long trip to the Andaman Islands.

Mithu: Sharmi, did you read the piece on sex and marriage in yesterdays Yahoo news blogs?

Sharmi: I did, as if I will pass an article of that sort.

Mithu: Any comments?

Sharmi: I agree with the writer in toto. You?

Mithu: I do too.

Sharmi: That blogger says that three years after marriage sex once a week is the norm. How many a week for you?

Mithu: Week? At that rate after seven years arithmetically it should be once a month. That's how it is. You?

Sharmi: The same. The blogger however makes no mention of the quality of the sex, or have I missed that bit in the article.

Mithu: You have not. Can we do some frank no-holds-barred talking about our sex lives Sharmi?

Sharmi: It's time we did. Go ahead.

Mithu: I'll describe a typical sex session that as I said is not more than once a month. After we get into bed Sudir might cuddle and kiss.

Sharmi: Lights on or off?

Mithu: Pitch dark as one can make it. I do not think Sudir has seen me nude in the past year. If I am in a mood I would respond and soon I will pull the night dress up and spread and he will come on top and after a few pumps he would ejaculate and turn round and I will wash and lie down back towards him and we will sleep.

Sharmi: All in one sentence.

Mithu: That's correct.

Sharmi: Orgasm?

Mithu: Orgasm! If you place it on the table in front of me I won't know what it is.

Sharmi: Same here Mithu. At times I will indicate that I want sex by rubbing his ankles and lower part of his legs with my toes. If he is not soundly asleep by then he would respond and your one sentence sex will result. Damu does not wash either. We are very good friends that's for sure but we have almost ceased to be husband and wife.

Mithu: What a marriage needs is variety.

Sharmi: Variety?

Mithu: That's right variety.

Sharmi: Both husbands and wife philander?

Mithu: Not quite. Variety within the marriage.

Sharmi: That's like having the cake and eating it too.

Mithu: Precisely. Variety within marriage I believe is possible. I have been doing some research on the Internet. I have printed out some articles. I'll fetch it. I need your comments.

(Sharmi read and her friend watched her face anxiously for reaction. Apart from widening of the eyes there was nothing. After an interval that to Mithu seemed interminable Sharmi folded the paper and placed it on the table.)

Sharmi: Interesting. It is all about partner swapping that she calls the swinging life style. I know about it but not in such detail. But this lady writing from first hand experience goes on to spread the good news with evangelical fervour.

Mithu: You got it right Sharmi. Evangelical is the word that occurred to me too. What do you think of it?"

Sharmi: The point she stresses is that this swinging life style strengthens marriage bonds.

Mithu: Do you find it difficult to believe that?

Sharmi: If she had said that marriage bonds are unaffected I would have no difficulty believing but she is vehement in declaring that swinging strengthens marriage bonds.

Mithu: So?

Sharmi: There must be some truth in it. Knowing you as I do I won't be surprised if you had not done further research to throw more light into this apparent paradox.

Mithu: I have Sharmi.

(She went to her desk and fetched more papers. Sharmi started reading and Mithu went in to prepare coffee. Coffee and bajji were on the table as Sharmi read through the various print outs.)

Sharmi: Interesting, very interesting, incidentally these bajjis are very tasty.

Mithu: Thanks, but go on.

Sharmi: There seems to be many ways of working these swap sessions. The simplest is where two couples get together and then there the ones were more than a pair of couples is involved.

Mithu: What are your comments about the car pool?

Sharmi: Quite funny and exciting too. After a party involving many couples the girls blindly pick car keys from a bag. She dangles the key and amidst laughing and clapping the man the car belongs to drives her to her house. That man's wife meanwhile picks up another car key and the man that car belongs takes her to her home. All participating couples end up in various homes and have sex. At a pre arranged time the men say bye to the girls and drive their cars home back to their wives and what follows is significant. Invariably they have hot sex with their wives before retiring. It would be a sad day for the girl who picks her own car key.

Mithu: That cannot happen. She can't see but she can feel certainly.

Sharmi: I didn't think of that. What do you say about the swing clubs?

Mithu: Where couples go to these clubs and choose from other couples in the club. I don't fancy that. Total strangers seem odd, even dangerous. But on one point there seems to be no difference of opinion. All agree that swinging strengthens marriage bonds. Sharmi: How is that Mithu?

Mithu: No cheating is involved. That's the key. All is open and above board. As transparent as crystal glass. Sharmi, men we all know like to have more than one woman. It seems women are no different either. In society that is not easy to get and fantasising and frustration is the result. Swinging is a neat way out.

Sharmi: It appears the evangelist has made a hit with you.

Mithu: To the extent that I am not horrified.

(Tiffin over the girls cleared the table and both sat on the sofa sipping coffee.)

Mithu: Sharmi are you thinking deep thoughts?

Sharmi: I am. Are you?

Mithu: Intensely.

(They drank the coffee in silence. Coffee over they continued to sit in silence but their brains were whirling like dynamos. Finally Mithu broke the silence.)

.Mithu: Are you thinking what I am thinking?"

(Sharmi looked up and then she moved closer to her friend and they hugged fiercely. There was no need for Sharmi to render a verbal reply.)

Sharmi: Mithu.

Mithu: Yes, Sharmi.

Sharmi: What is your attitude to my husband?

Mithu: I want to be frank Sharmi unmindful of the consequences. He is my fantasy man. Has been for years.

Sharmi: Shall I let you into a secret Mithu? Your husband is ditto with me.

Mithu: Shall I let you into another secret?

Sharmi: Yet another?

Mithu: My husband is your great admirer.

Sharmi: Mithu darling my husband adores you too.

(They hugged each other with greater ferocity.)

Mithu: Then why should we not swing?

Sharmi: Precisely what I was about to say.

.Mithu: Sharmi we must go ahead with this. I have read elsewhere that it is women who arrange these swing sessions. It is thus proper for us to do the organising. We have to get our men in.

Sharmi: Should not be difficult. Both will jump in whooping. The problem for me is how to broach the topic. When I think of it I shudder. You Mithu.

Mithu: I feel funny but something tells me that once we get started it will become easy.

Sharmi: Supposing everything goes as per plan how do we work it. I spend the night here and you in my place?

Mithu: And get the neighbours jabbering. No way. I am definite on this one point. On the same bed. That is how it should be. I must know what is happening and you too.

Sharmi: Damu will drool when he hears that. One of his partly achieved ambitions is to have sex with me when others are watching

Mithu: Partly achieved? That's news to me.

Sharmi: A year after our wedding Damu and I went on his business trip to US. We were for a day in Las Vegas. At Damu's insistence we had sex in the balcony of our room. The pity was that there was no audience from the other balconies to watch us. Las Vegas is not the place for that. Everyone heads for the gambling tables. Sex takes back seat there. I liked it Mithu. I am sure you would find it thrilling too. Of course it must in a place where no one knows us.

Mithu: Even thinking sets my heart fluttering.

Sharmi: But do we have the mental strength for open sex? I have not exposed myself even to you. How can I get nude when there are three pairs of goggling eyes?

Mithu: A good point Sharmi. We start now. For the next hour we go round in the nude. That will be practice. As for mental strength we have enough for this and lots to spare. Now come to our bedroom we will strip.

Sharmi: Bold girls we are Mithu aren't we. We have decided to swing and we are about to rope in our innocent husbands.

Mithu: It is the wife's job to prop up sagging marriages. At the rate we are now going it won't be long before we are lost as couples. We should think of this as a desperate rescue operation.

Sharmi: We are commandos.

(She raised her arms in a politician style 'V' and whooped. Then they gave themselves a high five and moved to the bed room.

Mithu unwound her sari and peeled off her blouse, and when her bra came off. Sharmi gasped.)

Sharmi: Quite breathtaking your breasts. Just the size, the mango up turn, and sag that Damu loves. When he sees them he will become cross eyed.

(Mithu then loosed the tape of her skirt and allowed her skirt to drop.)

So you are also a smooth shaver. Magnificent. It is a pity that so far no one other than Sudir has seen you this way.

Mithu: Lately not even Sudir. Now you start.

(Somewhat hesitantly Sharmi disrobed. Soon she was in her birthday suit. At her friend's request she turned one full circle round as a model would have done.)

Your buttocks are exceptional. Sudir is buttocks fancier. He will get an eyeful when he sees you. Vuvla too has the bulge that men prefer. Smooth too.

(She rubbed her hand over her friend's pubic mound and down the labiae.

They decided that they needed a polish shave. Soon they were in the bath room with Sharmi sitting on a stool with legs in the air as Mithu knelt before her and shaved her smooth. Then Sharmi repeated the honour. They inspected each others vulvae and declared them just perfect. Both the men like to rub their cheeks on the vulva and the girls in anticipation were doing their best to please them).

Mithu: I have a plan on working on our husbands. I will tell Sudir that you told me that he is your fantasy man. It would of course please my husband no end. Then I will tell him that I told you that I fancy your husband. You do the same. From that point I expect things to happen. What do you say?

Sharmi: That's a plan.

(The girls then hugged each other in the nude and then they dressed up. Sharmi took leave of her and went home striding with determined steps. She had delicate negotiations ahead of her.)

*

Damu was in high spirits. He must have done well in his office.

"How did your day go," he asked.

"The whole afternoon I was with Mithu. We talked a lot about many things. You may be interested in what she said about you."

"Hope she said good things."

"I don't know if I should tell you. You are already swollen headed and if you know what Mithu thinks about you your head might burst.

"My sweet darling, tell me. If you don't not my head but my whole body will split open."

"Mithu said you are her fantasy man." Damu whooped.

"Tell me in her words."

"'Damu is my fantasy man, Has been for a long long while.' These were the very words she used."

"What more?"

"It seems it is you she has in her mind's eye when she is climaxing."

"Really Sharmi did she say that much?" Sharmi nodded vigorously. "What did you say?"

"I said that once when ejaculating you said Mithu, Mithu."

"It's a lie."

"No it is not. And she said that Sudir adores me."

"Does he? And?

"I told her that my fantasy man is her husband."

"You do?

"I do. Are you jealous?"

"On the contrary I am happy that we four share that sort of feelings. A closed circle as it were."

"What's happening Damu? You are suddenly in deep thought."

"This thought is often in my mind. So far I have kept it to myself. Now I think is the time to share. Sharmi, have you heard of swinging?"

"Of course I have. In my school days I could swing so high that I would go beyond the horizontal."

"Not that, adult swinging."

"I have not seen any adult swings in the parks."

"Parks are not where adults swing."

"Then where?"

"In bedrooms."

"Bedrooms? Damu you are speaking in riddles."

"Swinging is another term for partner swapping."

"O that."

"Got it?"

"You are suggesting that you sleep with Mithu and I with Sudir?"

"I did not say that you are saying."

"OK I said that. What do you say, Mithu's man?"

"I am not averse to it."

"Good, so I call Mithu and ask her to come over with her husband. Is that what you mean?"

"Not quite."

'Then what?"

"Mithu and you started it. It is up to you two to decide the next step."

"Fair enough, but does Sudir think of swinging?"

"We have talked a lot about it."

"Then he is also primed for it?"

"I am quite certain he is."

"Mithu at this moment must be speaking to Sudir about her dream man at the street corner. If after that Mithu does not call I will be vastly surprised.

Within five minutes of this conversation the call came. Sharmi took the cordless receiver and retreated into the bedroom.

"Sharmi, I told Sudir and it is all I could do to restrain him. What happened at your end?"

"Same here. These men have been talking about swinging too. All four seem to want it. Can both of you come her for supper?"

"Of course my darling as soon as Sudir has a shave and bath.

*

Sharmi and Damu sat with ears tuned to the slightest sound of the visitor's arrival. Would they be walking or driving. Often they walked but certainly not today. Soon car tyres were scraping the gravel followed by the metallic sound of drawing of the bolt at the gate. They moved to the door. The first encounter was bound to be embarrassing. Mentally each of them had independently rehearsed the opening moves but no script could have predicted the events as they transpired. Sharmi opened the door wide. This was as per her script. Then things went another way. 'Sharmi,' said Sudir and they rushed to each other and hugged as kissed like lover meeting after long separation. Mithu and Damu did the same but before locking lips Damu had the presence of mind to close the door.

How long they were hugging and kissing they were in no position to know. Suddenly Sharmi realised that she was not acting the perfect hostess. She unstuck herself from Sudir and Sudir and she watched with fascination their spouses in all encompassing embrace. They were suddenly aware of the audience and separated with great reluctance.

"We will have a quick supper," said Sharmi, "and then back to business." It was as quick as any supper could be.

"Now Gentlemen," said Mithu, "it is dessert time. You two change to lungi and cut banians while Sharmi and I will retreat to the bed room to change. The lungi clad husbands gasped when their spouses appeared in T-shirts and nothing below.

"Why are you chaps looking at each other in such a quizzical way?" said Mithu. "If it is about what we have underneath you may feel but mind you no exploring." The girls stood with their rear facing the men, Mithu against Damu and Sharmi against Sudir. Amidst much giggling Damu inserted his hand under Mithu's T-shirt that came well above mid-thigh and ran his hands across her buttocks and declared that he felt only bare skin. 'Not even thongs,' he said. Sudir did the same to Sharmi and he was not able to feel any foreign body either. They had ice cream, one cup and one spoon for each couple with the man holding the cup and the girl the spoon. Sharmi sat on Sudir's lap and Mithu on Damu's. With only one hand free the men had to rub the bare thigh of the girl or fondle over the clothes. They did both alternately. The ice cream did not last long and when Sharmi and Mithu had cleared the cups the time had come for real action of the night.

"See what they are up to Damu darling," said Mithu. Sharmi sat leaning back on the sofa legs stretched and spread, her vulva glistening from the recent polish. Sudir had lifted up her T-shirt all the way up to her neck and was sucking her. She meanwhile had loosened his lungi and was holding his hard penis in her grip. She met the goggling eyes of her friend and her husband and smiled totally at ease and without the faintest trace of embarrassment. Spurred on by that sight Damu peeled off Mithu's T-shirt and she pulled off his lungi. She went with open mouth for his penis while his tongue sought her vulva and they were soon in a perfectly aligned 69, not easy to achieve as anyone who had tried that would agree. Days later in one of their post lunch get-togethers Sharmi and Mithu discussed this total lack of inhibitions in the first session itself. They concluded that they have all been fantasising so intensely that when it happened there was a deja vu quality about it.

"Listen all," said Mithu taking her mouth off Damu's penis. "We cannot be doing what we are doing and at the same time keep an eye on you two. I suggest that we move to the bedroom and one couple watch as the others perform."

"Sharmi," said Mithu, "Sudir and you go first while Damu and I will be ready with any help if needed.

"I would need help," said Sharmi in an emotion filled voice. "It is my dream that Mithu holds her husband's penis and inserts it into my vagina." The other three greeted this statement with respectful applause. But they needed assistance even before that final act of penetration.

Sudir was licking Sharmi with Damu on one side of the cot and Mithu on the other each spreading Sharmi's vulval lip so that the clitoris pops out of its hole for Sudir's tongue to play on it. Soon Sharmi's buttocks were jumping up and down and she climaxed and when Sudir bit gently on the clitoris she screamed. Sudir was now on top and the time for Sharmi to realise her dream was upon her. Mithu was holding her husband's penis and taking it towards her friend's vagina to bestow on her friend the greatest honour any woman can bestow on another. The three were holding their breaths as the penis slipped into the moist vagina. With her arms and legs Sharmi tightly embraced Sudir. In a spontaneous gesture Damu fondled one breast of Sharmi and Mithu the other. Sudir and Sharmi had a massive climax and Sudir gave her two more. Damu and Mithu applauded and climbed up and all four lay in a huddle as if they were one flesh.

I was the turn of Mithu and Damu. From the purposeful way they set about their task one felt that they must have analysed their dreams and arrived at a formula. Mithu went on her knees and elbow. Her breasts hung like mangoes and Damu lay face up below her like a mechanic under a car chassis. First he fondled using both hands and then he brought the nipple to his lips and sucked. Mithu was clicking and moaning. By now her clitoris was clamouring for its share. She crawled up to bring her vulva to Damu's lips and as he licked her breasts were free for Sudir and Sharmi to fondle. It was not long before she climaxed and soon she lay on her back with thighs wide open and Damu was on top with dangling penis. But not for long for his wife caught it and with a flourish inserted it into her friend's vagina. They climaxed and given the ambience it had to be a monster. Once again all four lay in a huddle. This time they snoozed both from mental and physical exhaustion. It was past midnight when Mithu woke up and was ready to go home.

*

Mithu called Sharmi on her cell phone soon after she reached home.

Mithu: Sharmi, back to sleep?"