(This chapter was written in collaboration with my online life-partner PixieHoff. We have a lot of fun bouncing story ideas between us. In this chapter we role-play an academic date of Emily, played by PixieHoff while I play the part of her fiancée Sansa and we take turns in playing Professor Fetisha, the study's lead investigator. We hope that you, our dear reader, will enjoy it as much as we do)
At breakfast, Lali tells me that someone from the Electric Garage Doors & Entrance Gates Company called to say their men will be arriving to install our electric garage doors & entrance gates tomorrow morning. Thanking her, I give her sufficient money to cover the quoted cost. She immediately locks it in the cash box and restores it to its safe hiding place.
"Darling Sansa," Emily smiles at me across the breakfast table, "I have a letter here, forwarded to me from the university. It is from an Indian Professor Fetisha. My own work has been about how performing things can have more impact than writing about them and is probably the reason she has written to me. She is visiting the UK and wants to talk to me about my work on 'post-colonialism as performance'. There is, it seems, an Indian Foundation which is funding work on decolonisation and India's imperial legacy. Professor Fetisha has rather a large grant to work on it."
Emily adds: "Text-based decolonisation, i.e. the written works by Indian and African writers, especially female ones, can only go so far. Examining recent events in the UK as an example, the tearing down of monuments to those associated with slavery, had far more impact because of the media. Actually acting out decolonisation stories might be equally effective, and indeed they might almost count as a form of reparation."
"I can appreciate why that might matter," I reply: "given what we know about my own past from my mother's letter. One of Piti's clients, a senior Indian government official working at the Ministry of Culture, had mentioned to me that there is a Foundation funding work on cultural decolonisation and that they are seeking a volunteer to work with on a very sensitive project. Part of the project is involved with the taboo subject of same-sex relations. There had been unequal lesbian relationships between white women in the Raj and some of their Indian servants. It had been suggested that one way of getting this taboo subject on the political agenda would be to deal with it as "performance", that is to use the theme culturally and politically to demonstrate how the tables could be turned. Would that be an act of lesbianism, which is taboo or would it be a demonstration of Indian supremacy and an act of decolonisation and reparations, which would be most politically advantageous?"
"I may see her all the same if you would be content, my love?"
I tell Emily that I am always content with her and her decisions: "This is where there is another challenge my love, and one which could have an effect on our beloved agency and Alisa's memorial. Though an escort and Indian, I am new to this and young. It would be amazing were there not thoughts, even in our own 'family' about whether such a young woman can assume the reins successfully. Added any such doubts must be, I fear, yourself my love?"
Horrified by the idea that she might be the cause of any distress, Emily enquires how she might be a problem.
"My love," I explain: "you are going from being my servant to being my wife. In that sense, you replace their, and my, beloved Alisa; we know it is not like that, but they don't. You are the only white woman in our Indian sorority. Surely they may wonder, on your own theme of colonisation, whether the white woman will now become their overlord. You are older than me, and they do not know the reality of our private relationship. Piti has suggested something which could, handled aright, calm all such fears, but it poses a test for US."
Emily asks Piti to tell me, promising that she would, as ever, be guided by me when it came to our business.
Piti had proposed that as we were mainly Indian, it would be seemly to work with an Indian Foundation and that as we have a white escort, she might be 'volunteered' for the project. The project is to perform the submission of a white woman to an Indian Memsahib, who would exact reparations from the willing submissive. Professor Fetisha is known to have written on the degradations suffered by Indian women, and the idea is to see what effect it might have to a white woman subjected to such matters.
Emily could see my dilemma: "So if you do not 'volunteer' me, you will be accused of playing favourites, and I will be thought to be getting above myself. I am well aware that at work, whatever I am to you in private, I am a working girl and must be treated not worse and not better than the rest of our family. Well then, my darling, there is nothing for it. I will do it!"
Piti's contact texts her that Professor Fetisha will be staying in the Park Suite at The Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. She forwards the information to Sansa and Emily.
Driven by Riya in Phantom 7, Emily & Sansa arrive at The Dorchester, an imposing building overlooking Hyde Park on one side and Mayfair on the other. Dressed in her new sari gown Emily makes her way to The Park Suite while Sansa, wearing the pretty pink sari dress she wore for her date with Shilpa, settles down in the Promenade Lounge.
"Bravo!" I say: "I am so proud of you, MY Emily."
Arriving at The Park Suite, Emily knocks nervously on the door. On hearing the words: "Come in!" she enters, to be greeted by a rather attractive professor, perhaps in her thirties.
The Professor smiles and introduces herself while Emily says: "Namaste" and bows.
Fetisha smiles again: "Do come and make yourself comfortable dear and tell me how I may be of service."
Emily explains: "You have read my work on performance and decolonisation. I now work for an escort agency here in London, it is called Chelsea Exclusives. My life-partner and owner of the agency, Sansa Memsahib has suggested, with my approval, that I might perform the role of the white woman in your study. So I would be the one to be... erm... paying reparations. If, of course, Memsahib, you approve?"
Emily felt herself blush, but was glad to have got it all out coherently. She wants her Sansa to be proud of her.
Fetisha smiles: "It is a pleasure to meet you Dr Hoff. I am pleased to meet with you alone, first because I wish to establish your current situation and relationship 'with your boss' and to be certain that you are entering the study of your own free will. I have plenty of time so there is no need to be brief or quick."
Emily explains: "Thank you Memsahib. My Boss, Sansa Memsahib, is also my prospective wife. We are devoted to our agency, and I want to undertake all I can to assist it to flourish. This study, in my opinion, is significant. A white woman submitting to pay reparations, for the misdeeds of some women in the Raj, would be an excellent example. The results of a study focussed on female interracial & sexual relationships, could be the thin end of a wedge; in terms of trying to convince some Indian politicians that same-sex relationships should not be taboo. As you can see Memsahib, I am eager and willing to perform the role. I would be happy if you wish to test my fitness for the role. I would, of course, perform as required."
Fetisha nods "I understand and appreciate what you say about overcoming the taboo, thereby allowing the government to legalise lesbian weddings. Let gay men fight their own battles. How do you think Sansa Memsahib feels about your participation in the study?"
