Exploring, Exploiting

By Asija, Manohar

Book Id: WPLBN0003437439
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 1.75 MB
Reproduction Date: 6/17/2014

Title:	Exploring, Exploiting
Author:	Asija, Manohar
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Drama and Literature
Collections:	Authors Community, Literature
Historic Publication Date:	2014
Publisher:	Self-published

Member Page:	Manohar Asija
Citation APA MLA Chicago Asija, B. M. (2014). Exploring, Exploiting. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Description
This novel is based on the plot that describes the life of a young lady having worked as Assistant Professor at the University level. These days, she is engaged by a Trust, interested in promoting `mental illumination through peace of mind and self-confidence. She is going places to deliver lectures, keep in mind the aims of the organization as well as the composition of the audiences. In fact, since her infancy she is on the move from one part of India to another, even having no idea of the identity of the couple who parented her. Having been reared up by a domestic maid, she was obliged to inherit this type of job to earn for her livelihood. The onset of puberty in the proximity of unrelated men was to be withstood with caution and care for her chastity. These tours of lecturing around, once make her find a known lady in her audience in Delhi. This incident opens her the way to meet many people in this big city and take her to the person who fathered her. Here, she also gets the truthful information about her mother.

Excerpt
Dear Madhu Ji, On my way back home I recapitulated, as my routine exercise, the discussions at the Coffee House. Can you recall the reaction of Mr Malik to Lal's outburst against the final outcome of Dhananjay Chakrovarty's legal battle to ward off the Capital punishment pronounced on him for rape and murder of a minor girl, when he himself was just 21 years? ……………..." I suppose Mr. Malik came out with some amusing retort, which made almost the entire group at the table giggle and I could not make out anything but only observe Mr. Malik move towards the toilets. Respected Sir, I clearly heard your `Guruji`, I mean Mr Malik, murmur aloud, “Is there any punishment available to your civilized society to punish an errant woman who voluntarily and actively seduces and commits rape on an innocent, uninitiated and in the prime of his youth?” “Do you mean a rape amongst a Lesbian fraternity?” Mr. Lal Singh speaks out smilingly. Mr. Malik simply hung his head down and spoke in his normal pitch, “I mean, on a companion belonging to the opposite sex.” Having uttered these words Guruji peacefully got up and moved in a gentle pace towards public conveniences leaving the giggling companions behind. ………………………………………………………………… “Prem, please! Be serious, I beg you,” Malik pleaded and resumed his `woeful tale`. …………….. “Was I unmindful of your contouring of my breasts? I am sure, you were making a mental sketch of my figure as you were carefully feeling the curves and slopes, and also stopping for a considerably long spell, every time, at the partitioning space between the breasts to gauge it accurately with the index finger so as to use it at a later date in your drawings and paintings and thus, claim to be a versatile artist.” And she asked, “Shall anybody believe your statement when I blame you of attempting to rape me?”……….. Getting no response from me, ………….. She implored me to `co-operate`.” Malik exhaled and presented a far graver look before he moved again towards climax. “I maintained a deliberate silence. After a short pause she issued the final warning as she said, "I am sure, you are not impotent. Therefore, I expect you to prove your `manly strength` well on time before it is too late and you are exposed to scolds and scorns of your own dears and nears." she shunned all shames and modesty of an educated woman, got up ……. actions of arousing me to do the needful. I found myself in a precarious state of helplessness and remained motionless. I had already been mortified and was incapable of giving any resistance to her nefarious designs. She was gradually mounting pressure on my torso with her own. In the next couple of minutes she took her position of `a victorious wrestler` over my body, as I lay on my back as a helpless `vanquished contestant`. ………… I had been completely subdued. She had to her fill what she aimed at." …………… The orator, who seemed in the second half of her thirties, dwelt at the topic from an impartial, non-aligned and well-considered angle. She was frank enough to admit, “I am not an atheist; better I may be taken as an agnostic. To my mind it suits to believe that there is some supreme power responsible for the creation, control and modification of the Universe. The modification is brought about through certain readjustments in the animate and inanimate substance of the Universe through a self-regulatory process, set in the very nature of the substance itself. We may signify this Supreme Power by using one or the other word, preferably known to or understood by the person being communicated to in respect of this concept, which we are going to refer as Supreme Power here for the present. This Supreme Power is the real Lord, enjoying sovereignty over all matter and energy, which may be termed as Nature for reference here. Thus we, too, are part of Nature. I am sure; such a postulate will make the things easier to be comprehended. I, for one, begin to sense or feel the things from here. You will excuse me for crutching on this assumption.” “Now, humanity is a concept to signify the entire human race. It stands proved that human beings have existed in the Universe for millions of years. Then, why should we unnecessarily worry about its extinction in a foreseeable limits of time? Hence we may comfortably assume it to be a continual entity. ……..With the advent of industry, electricity and now computer, man’s life came under greater and far greater stress and strain. It has given an intricate twist to man’s social web too. Thus we must strive to comprehend some generalities regarding ourselves so as to attain greater comfort and peace than what we are experiencing now. All animate bodies spend their lives exploring and exploiting their surroundings. The higher their level of intellect, the more are their exploits. The human being is at the top of this feat. Since its advent the mankind is busy in exploring and exploiting its natural surroundings. The difference in the level of intellect in the individuals urges them to exploit others, on one or the other count, as no one has the capacity to satisfy all of one’s urges by oneself”. At this juncture the esteemed orator quipped, “Should we always and at all places treat the term `exploit` as a substitute for `manipulate`?” After a very short pause, she grinned and spoke out again, “Don’t we, sometimes, enjoy being exploited by others?” Then she herself came out with a reply that was hidden in just another question; “Isn’t it true in the sex-game many a time?” It produced giggles in the audience. ………………… Her act of persisting Malik to keep Surjeet with him during her old age was a sort of seeking atonement for her above misdeed towards her friends. Though Malik never talked to Nirmala on this account during Surjeet’s life, yet a slight reference to this effect was made by him when Surjeet was no more, as ………. obliquely referred to her long separation from Chander …… ………… idea of sending a premature certificate, he might turn down the offer and let me remain his friend till the time, I was back to our homeland. ….The delay on my part made the matter worst for both and he could not stand long suspense and sent a salvo, the contents of which I could not withstand. The result is before you.” ………………… “Prem, did you mark Mrs. Mohan’s style of treating very affectionately Madhu and Pushkin and taking both of them into her fold simultaneously?” “I should say that she was behaving motherly to both,” Dang answers casually. Malik feels encouraged and says, “Yaar, the innocent widower is deeply in troubles”. “Is she pestering him much?” Dang asks. …………… Such thoughts lead him to his own days of youth. He recalls to his mind his first visit to the sex-workers’ den. Though the visit was an official one, yet he could not resist his passions and would have crossed the `Lakshman Rekha` but for the appearance of his superiors. Those days he was employed as an ad-hoc informer for the Information Support Department of the Central Government. After a short while that lady came so close to him that her legs were ready to inter-twine with his. He took her hand into his own and shook it gently and she responded by kissing him on the cheek. He was overcome by a desire to take her into his arms, but was mindful of the presence of others around. She bent her knees a little to make him have the feel of her heavy breasts. She stared at him with a view to evaluate the `level of desire` at that moment. Dang pulled her down to his lap, using their inter-twined hands as lever for the purpose. She remained seated there comfortably and raised no objection when Dang began to dab her breasts with his palm. Then he lit a cigarette, took a puff and placed the rest of it into her lips when he found them ajar in an effort to speak. She snuffed only once and returned the butt to him with “Thanks”! After a little pause, she asked him, “Are you interested in `shunting`?” No doubt, he could easily guess the meaning of the word, `shunting` in the given context, but the answer to the question was still in its formative stage, when a young girl, dressed in silk saree and heavy make-up appeared before him, as if, from nowhere. The pimp rose from his lap and handed over Dang’s wrist into that girl’s hand. Then she whispered, the charge, rupees five, is to be paid in advance.” Before he could decide his response, a man, in his 50s, held out his empty palm with the request, “Fee, sir, for twenty minutes is, no doubt, five rupees, but by paying ten rupees in advance you can enjoy for full hour, as you please!” Dang, now, recalls the craze for sex took over his virtue of thrift and frugality, as he drew out a ten-rupee note from his wallet and placed it the palm spread before him. But, even now, he thanks God once more, as he has been doing it during past forty nine years on this account for saving him, just when he was going to `set self afire` by his own misdeeds. He considers it a God-sent Mercy Squad, in the form of his immediate boss, accompanied by his superior. The moment Dang’s money touched the taker’s palm, he spotted his superiors close to him and it made him realize that he was caught red handed, having transgressed the limits of his brief`. Whenever he happens to recall this anecdote for the amusement of his friends, he feels the agitation, experienced by him when he took to his heels without looking into anybody’s face. ………… From that night onwards they had slept together in her bed-room, had their breakfast together, spent their leisure-hours together, whether in one’s or the other’s room. Both felt elated to have discovered each other. Suddenly one evening Sulochana drew a long face, when she was sitting at his lap. He tried to cheer her up by kidding her. Having failed in his efforts to bring her back to normal, he asked, “Are you all right?” He learnt that she feared that she had conceived. He was shocked and preferred silence for a while. However, he lost no time in coming to her rescue, as he began thrashing out the reasons behind her apprehensions. Though they could not reach at any final conclusion, she felt rejuvenated, started taking stock of the routine. In the bed, she behaved normally and fell asleep, as usual on his open arm. ………… ”As you please!” Malik picks up his note-book to scribble some points that are floating on the surface of his mind. Hardly had he jotted down a few words, when Dang issued towards the kitchen and he was lost in visualising Nirmala’s naked body in various postures. The last time, when he had seen it naked, was in 1992. He is fully conversant with all the gradual changes, through which her body has passed since their first ever copulation, that they enjoyed during their stay at Kulu, where they were attending an official workshop. However, the memory of the visual feast of her body, that he had an opportunity of enjoying on a water-bed, measuring 7 feet by 3 feet by 5 inches, at Manali the very next day, is still very fresh and vivid in his mind. The solemn promise, that both made during those blissful moments, has kept them bound to each other till-date. ……… Today Gunmala said that she knows nothing about her parents. She says that her mother died in the hospital, where Principal’s husband was working as a doctor. ”Soon after my mother’s death, I was sent by my mother’s mistress to the Principal’s house to fend for myself. ……… Mr Dua looks amazedly at the host’s face, ponders over the extent of expressing, in the presence of his erstwhile colleague, the particulars of his `far early` past. So, he opts not to answer the questioner directly, but, at the same time, feels like praising the gentleman for his memory and thus, asks, “Well, tell me one thing, when did you see me last?” ”Sir, it was at Port Blaire in 1976.” Mr. Singh’s reply puts Mr. Satish Chander Dua on the nerves. He is, somewhat, frightened and prefers to remain silent. But, Lal Singh comes out with a short narration, “Thos were the days of the so-called Internal Emergency, in the entire country. I had been deported from Delhi to that, otherwise beautiful place, to beg for my livelihood. I was forced to go without food quite often and use groves of trees as my night shelter.” ………… When back home from Delhi, after attending Markande’s function, Gunmala eagerly unlocked her chest of drawers, containing valuable personal effects and began fishing for a packet, that she expected to contain some very old photograph. This packet has a few of those photographs that might tend to answer her question, whether or not there is cogent resemblance between the face of a lady in one of the photographs herein and the face that is haunting her since she saw it at the function or simply the similarity of the design of the pendant, worn around the neck in both cases has engaged her attention “Having landed on the island, she proceeded to the nearby shelter, where other passengers were seen moving in. Some sat on the benches, while the other few were sitting on the grassy patch of land around the structure. She chose to stroll there. As if from nowhere, a man was seen moving in her direction.” ………………. Back at their home, Madhu and Pushkin are getting ready to go to bed, as they are busy changing into their night suits. Pushkin happens to recall his request to his `Guruji`, regarding the three categories of nipples, depending on their sizes and the resultant attitude, towards various aspects of life, of the female possessor. He enters into a romantic emotional display towards his partner and begins to tweak her nipples, simultaneously commenting on Malik’s reaction to his request for information about the source of knowledge of that `bachelor oldie`, on the range of various sizes of the nipples, as he classifies in his article on the specific characteristics of the possessor. ………….. Gunmala is moved to her core, sheds tears of joy, rises from her seat and reaches out to Malik, with the single word, ”PAPA”, repeated innumerably.