As you could guess from title, this is a real life incident that opened the road of swapping wives among the male cousins of a family. Their hesitating wives initially joined the game with reservations and slowly they started enjoying the illicit game so much that there was no going back. Any respected reader who may not be comfortable to such ideas or find such sexual activities among the close relatives offensive should not proceed further to read the story.
I am Jay, married to Nisha and the story starts when we had completed almost ten years of marriage and our only child was then three and half years old. I was at that time 42 years and Nisha was 32 years. Ours was a love marriage. Nisha was not very beautiful but had good figure, 36-32-36 to be precise. Her height was 5'4". She was a good singer too. I worked in a reputed private sector and Nisha was a government employee. I am tall, 5'10", not bulky nor thin, though due to my stature everyone considered me to be towards thin.
In that year my first paternal cousin (son of my father's youngest brother), Rajat visited us with his wife and daughter. Rajat was a government official. Rajat had got married about one and half years before me and his daughter was older to my daughter by about sixteen months. Although both me and Rajat were very close since our childhood, respective service life and day to day domestic preoccupations have kept us apart for years. Rajat's visit that year was, in fact our first meeting after we both got married.
Rajat was younger than me by about 4 years and naturally he addressed me as "dada" ( customary way of addressing an elder brother in our tongue) and Nisha as "boudi" (equivalent to bhabi and customary way of addressing elder brother's wife in our tongue). Even though, in years, my wife Nisha was younger to Rajat, it was the relationship that was respected.
Rajat and his wife Rima also had a love marriage and she was working in a reputed college as a lecturer. When Rajat visited us with his family, Rima was around 34 years. Rima was shorter than Nisha in height (5'2"). She too was not very beautiful but like Nisha had a charming look and her complexion was brighter than Nisha. Rima had an average figure but her butts used to swing very seductively and any male was supposed to get a hard on looking her walking from her back when she walked. Nisha and Rima became very friendly from their first meeting and half seriously both criticized and censured me and my cousin Rajat for our smoking and drinking habits.
Although Rajat was younger to me, by the time he was at PG level, I knew that Rajat used to drink and smoke. But he used to avoid indulging in either in front of me. So when we both got employed, I had one day assured him that he need not hesitate to drink or smoke before me as we were both enough grown up. This freed him considerably and later whenever we met, we used to smoke freely and sometimes had drinking sessions together. But those became rare moments as respective professional lives mostly kept us away from each other.
When Rajat came to visit us with his family, it was after an interval of about ten years since we two had met last. Our wives and daughters became very friendly towards each other. On the third day of their visit, Nisha and Rima planned to visit some acquaintances with our daughters while me and Rajat decided to enjoy our fraternal drinking and smoking sessions together. As our families were to visit four or five houses, me and my cousin had a leisure time of about four hours in the evening. I didn't know that this fraternal drinking session could change my attitude and would lead to fraternal swapping of spouses.
On that day our families were to visit our acquaintances, me and my cousin had thought about going to a famous local pub but then decided otherwise since our kids also wouldn't be at home. My cousin was more interested in drinks so he arranged for alcoholic beverages while I took care of accessories like fried cashew nuts, mutton etc. As our wives and kids were about to leave, both Nisha and Rima came to us reminding us not to get out of control and staking their claims to the share of accessories since they would not drink alcohol. We assured them of their shares.
As me and Rajat sat with our drinks, we were discussing multiple subjects starting from international politics and global warming down to trivial family matters. In the course of our chats Rajat said, "Dada, both me and Rima were discussing it the other day that you apparently look so shy that it was quite unbelievable that you had a love marriage."
Both of us smiled and slowly our conversation went in a different line as Rajat was telling me about various sexual liaisons he was having even after his marriage with Rima. Being older to him in age, I tried to sound both serious and humorous and said, "You seem to be a lady killer having liaisons with so many women. But Rima is a very good girl, you shouldn't have cheated her."
"But Dada(elder brother)," my cousin said, "I didn't intend to cheat her. But after few years of marriage, our physical relation became a bit stale and charm less. I can't perform with Rima as I do with other women I laid.
Don't you think your relation with Boudi (elder brother's wife) too had become stale and not as fascinating today as it was in first three or four years?Tell me honestly."
Rajat's suddenly turning the table on me was quite unexpected and it startled me slightly. With some hesitation I admitted, "Well that's a fact. But both Nisha and Rima are very good and honest. We shouldn't be unfaithful to them."
Rajat smiled and said, "Don't take it otherwise. Since marriage, apart from Rima, I have been to bed with four ladies so far. They were all good and honest women from respectable backgrounds. They didn't want to disrupt their family lives. But they had their physical needs and enjoyed with me knowing that there is no threat that might endanger their reputation or disrupt their family life. They were not having any major conflicts with their respective spouses either though all admitted boredom in sex life. It's not exactly the issue of infidelity but to spice up one's own life with variety."
I smiled at him and asked, "Nice as an argument. But shall we accept similar spicing up by either Nisha or Rima? Or do you think they would like to spice up their lives with variety due to boredom of marital sex? Is it something a privilege for men only?"
Rajat replied, "Both Boudi and Rima are very good women. But depending on how one approaches, the risk involved or what is at stake etc, I think, both of then can be convinced by the right person to enjoy outside marriage. The women who were close to me also had hesitations but....."
My cousin didn't complete and looked at me. I said, "You are experienced, so I don't want to contradict. But both Rima and Nisha are from such conservative middle class backgrounds that they can't break the barrier of puritanism already set in their mind like the women you are describing."
"Dada, you're yet to know the new changing world of sex in India," my cousin said, "More the puritan, more are frustrations of marital sex. If Rima and me or Boudi and you have shortcomings in our marital sex life, it's likely that their conservatism will make them suppress any wish contrary to their puritan views. But if approached by the right person, in right circumstances, the conservative women are more likely to respond quite positively. One asuurance they need is about reputation."
I laughed and said, "I certainly can't challenge my Casanova brother even though I find it hard to believe what you said."
Rajat looked at me curiously and said, "I don't know if you will admit, but hasn't your and boudi's intimacy had become stereotyped? At least me and Rima had faced it. My extramarital affairs had helped me to rekindle my fire for Rima. I am not sure if I am right in sharing a secret of our conjugal life. When I noticed the effect of my secret affairs on me, without telling her of my escapades I suggested to Rima about exchanging partners sometimes for fun and she was not adverse to the idea. Only thing that she was afraid of was to find a trustworthy couple so that no complications occur out of fun."
I seemed to understand what my cousin was upto and said, "Are you sharing this to me in your bid to explore the possibility of a trustworthy couple in me and your Boudi?"
"Not necessarily," replied my cousin, "I was trying to tell you about Rima's response. By the way, for me, you and Boudi as a couple for the swapping fun are quite ok, though I will have to ask Rima's views."
I got a bit annoyed and irritated too. How could Rajat think of us to join him and Rima in their dirty fun. So I said a bit roughly, "You see, I think Nisha is too conservative and unlike Rima, she is not so smart to agree to such fun."
"It's your own conservatism and puritan mind speaking," replied my cousin smilingly, "Not Boudi's. Don't you like to fantasize of Rima sitting nude on your lap and you two engaged is naughty things knowing that what you're doing is not legal and socially acceptable? It's not just sex, it is the excitement of enjoying something forbidden."
I couldn't believe Rajat would speak in that language about me and his wife. I said, "I think you drank too much. Let us stop now."
"I'm not that drunk, dada," my cousin said, "We're just talking about the possibility. It would have been safest if this could have been among four of us. But don't mind, there is no compulsion though I know you're having uncomfortable feelings just at my mention of Rima on your lap. It could be even more if you think of Boudi on my lap."