My latest book is The One Who Swam With The Fishes.

"A mesmerizing account of the well-known story of Matsyagandha ... and her transformation from fisherman’s daughter to Satyavati, Santanu’s royal consort and the Mother/Progenitor of the Kuru clan." - Hindustan Times

"Themes of fate, morality and power overlay a subtle and essential feminism to make this lyrical book a must-read. If this is Madhavan’s first book in the Girls from the Mahabharata series, there is much to look forward to in the months to come." - Open Magazine

"A gleeful dollop of Blytonian magic ... Reddy Madhavan is also able to tackle some fairly sensitive subjects such as identity, the love of and karmic ties with parents, adoption, the first sexual encounter, loneliness, and my favourite, feminist rage." - Scroll



Sign up for my newsletter: The Internet Personified

15 June 2005

The Party (part two)

"So ask me then," I said, smiling. I was sitting on the telephone table in our living room with my cast up, resting across Luke's legs. "Is it heavy?" I asked him before, and he shook his head and looked at me luminously.

"I'm not going to ask you now," he replied, looking up at me, one eyebrow raised, "I think I need to have another couple of drinks before." By then we noticed that the room had quieted down, somewhat and people were looking at us with amusement and curiousity.

Nandini had already falled asleep around 11 pm, and I think, at about 1.30ish, everybody else left too. Leaving Ragini and Saif, who murmured to each other, and me and Luke and Daman. I really don't know what to say about Daman. He was just there you know? He oscillated miserably between Ragini and Saif and Luke and I and when he said, "I should go" we only made medium-sized protests.

And then, there was Luke and I, standing near the bar and I laughed and said, "So, dude, what did you want to ask me?" And he inhaled sharply and busied himself with making a drink and said, "I wanted to ask you whether you would be willing to wait."

"To wait?"

"Yes, because, you know my situation, my girlfriend leaves in a month and my hands are tied till then."

Somewhere at the back of my head, people were letting out loud war-whoops.

"I thought Ragini said you weren't interested?" I looked at him, teasing. It's true, Ragini did say something along those lines, a friend thing, "eM, be careful."

"Well, she was wrong," he was looking at me now and in control, you could totally tell.

Later, we drifted into my room. The original plan was that the boys would spend the night also. I assumed Ragini would crash in my room with me, since I have a futon that rolls into a bed and that the two of them would fend for themselves. But she appeared breezily, said, "I'm just getting my nightsuit!" and vanished. Hmph.

And there was Luke lying across my bed, his eyes dancing with amusement at my obvious discomfort, and there was I, sitting up, arms crossed. "Come here," he said, stretching out an arm.

We spoke about his girlfriend at length. How "innocent" she was, how she had never been with a guy before, how he didn't want to be the one to break her spirit. And all the while, I'm nodding and going, "Mmm hmm." and inside my head I'm thinking, "But what about ME???" He took it for granted that since I was older, I was more experienced, hardened in a way that his innocent soft girlfriend clearly wasn't and I played up to this image. I blew streams of grey smoke across the room, I gave him advice in a voice hoarse with tiredness and I didn't kiss him or touch him or anything.

"Look," I said, switching off the light, "It's sunrise. The birds are chirping. And I'm tired. So, yeah, I'm not going to make a move, because that would be wrong, but I'm going to count down. And if you don't do anything by the time I reach 10, we will go to sleep like normal human beings."

I'm sorry if that sounds like hypocrisy. I'm sorry if that was even a blatant move couched in passive terms. But I don't care. YOU try not hitting on hottie lying with only an inch of space between you, when you have nothing to lose. Try it. Go on. Then give me a lecture.

"T minus 10," I said out loud. He was quiet.
"9"
"8"
"7"
"6"
"5"
By the time I got to four, I figured he was asleep, but just to finish, I went to "2" in my head.

And then.

"3?" he asked.

"No, two," I answered.

And when I got to one, I said nothing.

And then he kissed me.

25 comments:

  1. does this story have a part three or is it "that's it" ???? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hopefully it moved beyond First Base. Don't see why you get bad karma out of this, though. Seems to me like he seduced poor gullible you :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr Bajaj is going to have a fit. But a smooth move by the two of you. The countdown to ecstacy et al. Now the eMM...has been cast.
    Luke Smmothwalker knew what was coming. Yet he needed two drinks to go ahead. Hmm
    Oye Bajaj kys hua, KLPD?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Baadummpuuummm CHIIIINNNGG !!!

    Bingo ! Ten points to me !! I was right !! Way to go eM !! Love that little countdown thing ! Definitely worth remembering ;) Or maybe it only works for women...

    A whole other countdown commencing now I guess ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice. Both the story (especially if true - don't we all hope?) and the way you've written it. Definitely not just chick-lit.

    But then, to Gain Credibility as a Serious Writer, Something Terrible (or at least Majorly Depressing) has to happen to one of you Soon and then the other one Agonises over It for 200 pages ...

    J.A.P.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Phir kya hua...
    Chattur Kutte, Sayane Kutte, Kutte ne tha condom pehna. Haahahaa
    That was one of the family planning things that a friend claims used to be played on TV a decade ago.
    Highly doubt it though.
    Anyway Oye Bajaj tu condom pehenta hai ya sanskaar ke virudhh hai woh bhi

    ReplyDelete
  7. First, Mint, Sagnik and everyone else who wants a part 3. I don't know what happens next. I really don't. And I wanted you guys to feel the uncertainity that I do, right now. Plus all good stories end with the kiss and now the "now what" conversations that happen afterwards! :)
    Now then.

    raxterise: Making out in a cast is not that tough, as long as you keep the injured foot at a safe distance! :)

    fingeek: Poor gullible me :) Even I cracked up when I read that!

    imhunt: I'm not sure I understand your comments, so no reply there.

    vignesh: Only works for women, hmmm? I'm not sure, give it a shot and find out! Remember to tell me how it goes, though :)

    Vibhu: Something brewing definitely. Though it's on slow cook right now :(

    JAP: Why, thank you :) And most certainly true. But so far, this is a trauma-less story. Maybe that'll change in a month?

    triteinin: I like to think so. The whole girl power thing, I mean.

    ReplyDelete
  8. At least now you don't have to go through all that - I mean 'he likes me, he likes me not' thingie:)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Does your creative commons license apply to our comments as well.
    Anyway all this love-shove (who said anything about the pun) talk goes woosh over my head...when I choose to.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think this is a brilliantly written tragedy ...

    ReplyDelete
  11. What then of Luke? Or more to the point, of his "innocent" girlfriend?? I mean come on, he just cheated on her regardless of what he says. Too many guys and girls are not honest and not strong because they think they will hurt the other. So cheating is better? Clearly, Luke is hot and talented. But he is not of Skywalker material. To the dark side he will go. Careful you must be eM ....

    ReplyDelete
  12. i think he means that u may be in a cast, but u gotta ensure u don't become a castaway ...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Just back from TC and very buzzed, so forgive any typos :)

    ab: Totally dude :) Now I'm going through, "He's going to break up, he's NOT going to break up."

    chameleon: Absolutely. Unless you mean me.

    imhunt: Nope, individual writing belongs to the indvidual and not me.

    bonatellis: Thank you. I think :)

    raxterize: Um.. erotic? Okay, then!

    brainbird: Poem nice, doesn't cut ice, comment better, makes you go-getter. (Okay, terrible rhyme, but you get the picture)

    kafka: I agree. But when someone is hot and talented, it's hard to say no.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh excellent! He sounds like a bit of a cad (his girlfriend's leaving in a month and he's ALREADY making backup plans?!) but it's always the bad ones who are the most attractive.

    And I agree with some of the others - both of you played it like a couple of pros.

    Of course, if it had been MY story there would've been a lot more than just a kiss after all that buildup!

    ReplyDelete
  15. yeah, shouldn't there had been a bit more of hard-to-get play ...

    kafka, she wouldn't know that ... the kiss was on the cast, really.

    ReplyDelete
  16. methinks all u guys are plain jealous YOU were not the ones playing the part of Luke Castwalker ...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hey good smooth move by Luke (I liked the Castwalker bit Bonatellis). But eM wasn't exactly being all innocent and bashful was she. Both of 'em wanted to score and they did. Yay they're happy now or at atleast I hope they are. Now let's get back to work until Part 3 comes along.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  19. 1. well, just hope you went to sleep smiling and woke languid (or the other way round).
    2. no part 3 is good. I suppose. unless you can seriously better part 2
    3. back at tc? now that's good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  20. what's this "wanting to score" bit ... isn't it supposed to be all spontaneous ...
    or am I too old-fashioned ...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Was PRAYING to god or whatever.."PLEASE let there be a part three!!!" and then i read the comments on this spot...gah..the ending was NICE tho...keep up the good work...or should i be wishing the other chap ...dunno

    L. Hyena

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your feedback! It'll be published once I approve it. Inflammatory/abusive comments will not be posted. Please play nice.