I am Deep Basu, a fairly successful corporate executive and now CMD of a Swiss owned company in India. I am a happily married man with two grown up children both well settled abroad. My wife is a well educated woman, who in recent days keeps herself busy in social activities, to cope with the empty nest syndrome. We did have a very active sex life during the first four or five years of our married life. Later, it gradually went down hill, but did exist till about ten years ago. But now it is almost non-existent. Once in a blue moon, we do have sex and I still perform well without the use of Viagra. At my age of 56, I do feel a bit sex starved and have to remain satisfied with the use of my hands. I never had a chance to have any romance before marriage. Nor I had any extra-marital affair during the long thirty years of or married life. I, of course, never deny that I never felt attracted to other women. I liked and admired so many women in my life. But nothing romantic happened ever. I have enjoyed clandestine sex once in a while, when travelling abroad. But those were just one night stands, nothing more. As such, romance was totally absent in my life, except for first couple of years after marriage.
In my heart of heart, I am a very romantic person and have a strong sex urge too. But my romantic overtures or sexual adventures, by sheer lack of opportunities, never went much beyond unrealised fantasies. At this age, I am more or less reconciled about total lack of romance and keep myself occupied with my work and a bit of reading & golfing. But all of a sudden, something happened that created a big turmoil in my life.
I was attending a conference in Geneva. It was for the CEOs from all over the world. At the lunch break on the first day I was mentally searching if there was anyone from India. Apparently there was none. Suddenly I noticed a lady wearing a sari. She was wearing a jacket over her sari and I mistook her as one from a western country as long as she was sitting. She had a scarf over her head that had hidden her Indian style hair and her complexion was too pale for an Indian. Now that she was standing and had taken her scarf off, I could recognise her as an Indian. She also noticed me and walked up to me. We shook hands and introduced ourselves. She was the CEO of an Indian Bank and was now stationed in Bombay. Her name was Mona Kapur. She was a Bengali married to a Punjabi. As the first day's programme was over, we walked out of the conference hall and went to the lawn behind the hotel. Both of us were free and we sat down to chat.
While we got to know each other I watched her closely. She was quite tall for an Indian woman, about 5' 8" and was very trim. Her lean body matched her chiselled features and her black hair had streaks of grey, which shined like silver against the sun. Her bust was moderate but her hips were quite large and very noticeable against her lean waist. From what she said about her education & career I guessed she was about two years younger than my 56 years. She looked young for her age, particularly because of very smooth and wrinkle free glowing skin.
As we exchanged notes, we discovered we had one thing in common. We had both planned to enjoy a holiday for about a week after the conference, but our spouses were not accompanying us. I always felt holidaying with my wife was a bit too restrictive as I have to honour her wishes for visiting monuments & museums all the time and had no opportunity to unwind. So, this time I decided to be on my own. My wife was visiting my son in USA and timing was just right for me. For Mona it was a compulsion as her husband was recently transferred to Singapore and no way he could get out for a week. But Mona was too eager to take a break and decided to be on her own. None of us had any itinerary in mind and had not booked any hotel or air or train tickets. All that we wanted was to unwind. We both were very surprised at the similarity of our holiday plans or lack of it and laughed our heads off. We immediately struck a chord of friendship.
After chatting for more than two hours we went back to our rooms to get ready for cocktail & dinner for the conference participants. As I entered the hall, I saw Mona standing alone apparently waiting for me. She was looking gorgeous in a white silk sari with red & golden border, dark red sleeveless blouse and a maroon shawl with golden embroidery. She hurriedly walked up to me and I was delighted to see her so eager to meet me. We managed to stand apart from the crowd and quietly chatted. After a while we found the music too loud and quietly slipped away from the hall.
We went to the bar, which overlooked lake Geneva and settled down with a bottle of French wine. The bar was not crowded at all and we saw the moon shining over the lake. We enjoyed the environment, which was simply out of this world. The wine loosened us up and we chatted endlessly. We talked about literature, movies and music and our tastes turned out to be very similar. Without so many words being spoken, I realised she also had a bit too romantic mind. We instantly liked each other.
We unconsciously held our hands and at one point I noticed Mona had taken off her sandals and her feet was resting on my feet. I slipped my feet out of my shoes and let her feet rest properly on my feet. I was rather surprised at the romantic mood engulfing me and I was unable to believe the environment was real. When we were told the bar was closing, we reluctantly moved out. Mona was a little unstable in her feet and held my hands. I placed my arm around her to help.
I asked Mona if she was hungry and she said she was famished. We went to the coffee shop and enjoyed lovely Swiss fondue. After we finished the food we were too full. But it was difficult to resist the temptation of having Swiss ice cream. We ordered one ice cream and the young waitress asked with a sweet smile, if we wanted two spoons. To my surprise, Mona smiled back and said only one spoon! As the waitress placed the ice cream in front of us, Mona took a scoop and offered it to me. She had the next scoop and offered me the next one. I couldn't remember when I last shared the same spoon with another person and my heart felt rather warm.
As we left the coffee shop and walked towards our rooms, Mona said in a sad voice," You know something? It's all very nice to travel alone, but going back to a lonely bed is not something I relish. If I sleep alone, I always have a disturbed sleep. So many years of travelling have not been of any help."
I was rather surprised she was telling me this. As I was in high spirits I said, "I wish I were your husband. Then you wouldn't be sleeping in a lonely bed."
She looked at me and said, "Honestly, I see nothing wrong if we sleep in the same bed just for avoiding loneliness. At my age, I am not unduly worried about my modesty getting outraged. I don't think I run that risk, particularly from a gentleman & a friend like you. More I think of it, the more I feel you & I sleeping in the same bed is a not a bad idea after all. Why don't you pack your suitcase and shift to my room for tonight? Tomorrow we are leaving anyway."
Though I was totally shocked at her suggestion, I felt she was serious and asked her, "Do you really mean what you say?"
She said, "Off course I do. What's your problem? You don't like any intrusion in your privacy or you enjoy sleeping alone?"
I said," The problem is nothing, except that I don't trust my libido as much as you trust the gentleman in me."
She shook her head and said, "Come on my friend. I don't think at this age my physique is going to play havoc to your libidinous instincts. Even if it does, let it be. I am no prude."
