It was in mid 1996 that I joined a new job and shifted to Mumbai with my wife and baby daughter. One of the major clients at my new workplace was a Gujrati gentleman. He was 70 years old and he was simply loaded. We will refer him hereafter as Mr M. I handled his account.
He had great admiration for Bengalis and he liked me very much. I also liked him and enjoyed his company. We soon became very good friends. We developed a family relationship. My wife and I along with our daughter used to visit his house almost every weekend.
He lived with his wife in a palatial mansion on Marine Drive. They had two sons who had grown up and had both emigrated, one to the US, and the other to Europe. They would visit once in every two years or so. So we became like surrogate son, daughter in law and granddaughter to the old couple.
In 1998 my son was born. As was the custom, he was born at my in laws place back in Kolkata. Three months after he was born my wife came back with the kids. Initially my mom in law came to help my wife take care of the kids. Then she had to go back. My mom couldn't come as my dad was very sick at the time. Both Mr & Mrs M insisted we shift to their place so that my wife would get help with the kids.
We began living with them. His wife would help my wife take care of our kids. My wife needed to breast feed our son regularly. She would sometimes do so in front of all of us with her breasts half covered or even fully uncovered.
After about two months of our staying there, my wife one night told me that she felt Mr M was getting sexually attracted to her. I told her not to be crazy. He was 73 years old. And he loved her like his own daughter in law.
Anyway, soon after my dad passed away. We all had to rush off home. After the cremation, sradh and completing all the rituals and formalities we returned back with my mom who was now alone. We moved back to our place.
About a month later, Mr M and I were sitting at the CCI where he often took me. After a while he told me he wanted to say something to me that I would probably find extremely unacceptable. If so, I should tell him so straight away. We would never refer to the matter again. But it should not affect our relationship thereafter.
He told me that he had always liked my wife. But during the months we had spent in his house and seeing her up close for day after day, his feelings had changed. After seeing her magnificent breasts as she suckled our baby he now also wanted to enjoy her physically.
I was stunned. I recalled what my wife had told me a few months before. But I found I was not feeling any anger at what he was asking. Not even any sadness. On the other hand, I was feeling a sense of excitement. And a sense of gratitude towards the man for giving us the chance to repay him for the friendship and kindness and love he had always shown us.
I told him that nothing he ever asked from us could ever be unacceptable. He had always give us so much. But the ultimate decision in this matter had to be taken by my wife.
He agreed. He asked me to speak to her about it. She should not be forced in any way. If she refused, then the matter would end then and there. He asked that we take our time before deciding.
That night I broached the matter with my wife. She too, like me, did not feel any anger towards Mr M. She knew how much he had always helped us. She asked me what would happen if we refused him? I told her what he had said about forgetting the matter totally and never referring to it again.
She asked but what would happen if he actually did take it otherwise? What if we lost his love and friendship? And what would it do to our relationship. Would I, sometime in the future, hold it against her if that happened?