My name is Priya and I am now 31 years old, married and with a kid. After all these years, this is the first time I have had the courage to write about this phase of my life. I met my old friend, Anu, last weekend, for the first time, since my college days. The memories came flooding when I saw her. Anu and I share a past which invokes very conflicting emotions. If I look back in a longer time frame, I often think it was one the good things to happen to me, but, not everything about it was fun. It all started with two gullible 19-year olds, who had just finished high school & were about to start their bachelor's degrees. We were from middle class families, not poor, but, we could not afford any luxuries either. I had a younger brother and so did Anu. Our parents were typical hard working Indian parents, who would sacrifice everything for their children. But Anu and I, like most rebellious teens, always dreamt of parties and typical Bollywood fanfare. This led to the mistake that changed our lives.
Through some contacts, we learnt about a special party in a luxurious cottage by the beach in one of Mumbai's suburbs. We lied to our parents and concocted stories about studying at some friend's place. It was typical rave party with drugs and booze flowing and lots of young boys and girls. At the gathering, we met a guy who went by the name Paddy. He was rich, stinking rich from what we could gather. He was quite good looking as well and was about 6 years older than us. We learnt that the cottage belonged to Paddy and this was his party. Paddy was inquisitive and asked us lots of questions. He wanted to know about our parents, our college plans etc. We told him about our plans and challenges of getting into a good engineering college. He was very easy to talk too and for some reasons we opened up to him.
Now when I look back, I don't remember anything else about the party. I know we got drunk and it felt like a good time. I remember the phone call from Paddy, that changed things. Paddy invited us to a different house, which turned out to be his main living accommodation. A stylish apartment in a posh Mumbai complex. Paddy told us that there was something important to discuss and we could not turn it down.
"Hello girls. Glad you came. Do you want a beer?"
His first words still ring in my ear. We said no.
"Looks like you have become good girls, suddenly." He laughed.
She stared at him, not knowing what he meant.
"I will cut to the point. I have some pictures of your naughtiness, from the party."
He handed an envelope and all hell broke loose. He showed us some really compromising pictures of us. In a few we had stripped off our pants and while we were not naked, we were in different stages of nudity. We also seemed to be in compromising positions with a few random guys. Overall it was stuff that our parents would call 'shameful' acts, and, if these leaked, we would be in lots of trouble.
"They were just pictures from the party. There are others as well. Now, let me explain why I am showing them to you."
He then spoke for the next several minutes, explaining, the he had chosen us for a special reason, and, we had a lot to gain from this. He offered a deal that according to him would change our lives. If you boil it down, it was blackmail but there was something different about it as well. In return for keeping this private, he offered us admissions in one of the best colleges in Mumbai and he offered money. Then he gave us the bad news. He would decide everything we did for the 4 years we were in college. We had to live by his rules and he made it clear there would be sex involved. Essentially, his words were "I will own you, but you will get a lot out of this as well." He gave us two weeks to consider and asked us to come back to the same place with our decisions.
Anu and I labored over it. It felt like we did not have a choice. He held the advantage over us, with the pictures. And he was offering us a lot, stuff, which our parents could never afford, and we could never get into that college with our education. The other side of the bargain was horrible to imagine. We both had past boyfriends and were no longer virgins, but we still had moral standards and were conservative for most part. Paddy never threated us with consequences and it was left unsaid. His calm demeanour made it worse. We spent many sleepless nights over it. Finally, it was Anu who first said the dreaded words. "I think we should do it." Over the next few days, I got on board as well. We finally met him as per our agreement.
"So, you girls on board with this?" He asked as we entered his house.
"We wanted to talk about it." Anu found the courage.
"Go ahead." He gestured.
"For these weekends you mention, what would you want from us?"
