For MATURE lovers
This real life experience happened to me three years ago. At that time I
had just started working in a shoe-making factory in Tamilnadu, as an
accountant. I was twenty-four, unmarried, and had no experience in matters
of sex, whatsoever. I mean, I used to think about having sex and I used to
masturbate. But I had never had any real experience with a woman. For one
thing, I was shy. Another, I abhorred the very thought of having sex with
a prostitute. But sexual desire in me was there in plenty. I was
masturbating almost every night, and I was also wondering if that was
affecting my health adversely. I was a friendly guy at my workplace.
Everyone liked me because I had a good sense of humor. I was from Kerala
and I was not able to speak Tamil well. But I was picking up fast. There
was one other malayalee in our company, a boy of nineteen named Shiju. He
ran errands and did odd jobs. He was of a poor background. He was not a
talkative person. And, even though we belonged to the same state, we were
not friends in the real sense. We knew each other, that's all. From my
side, I had never let him feel that I was keeping a distance from him
because of our positions, me an accountant and him a mere labourer in the
factory. The fact was that he was not friendly with anyone. He was an
aloof sort of creature. When Onam came I asked permission from my boss to
go to Kerala. He was reluctant at first, since it was a new factory and
work was going on in full swing, but seeing that I was already home-sick
from being away from my hometown for a long time, he granted me a leave of
five days. So I got ready to go to Palakkad, the district to which I
belonged. I was to leave by the six o'clock bus in the evening and catch
the Trivandrum mail at Katpadi railway station in the middle of the night.
While I was hurriedly doing the packing, Shiju came to my room. He too had
asked for leave, but the boss had declined straight away. "What is the
matter, Shiju?" I asked. "Want me to bring you something?" "No," he
replied. But by the expression on his face I understood that he wanted
something from me. It was usually money. He used to borrow small amounts
from me when he had to urgently send money to his home. He said now, "Will
you do me a favor, sar?" "Name it, Shiju," I said benevolently. "Sar, if I
had got this leave for Onam I was planning to bring my mother here." "Your
mother? Here? Why" "Family problems, sar. Ever since my sister has got
married my poor mother is not getting any peace of mind at home. She is
not at all treated nicely. Her daughter and son-in-law want to drive her
out of the house." "Oh. But, Shiju, where will you keep her here? In your
room? It is so small and you are sharing it with someone?" "That person is
about to move. And I am sure that we will manage, sar." He waited a few
seconds. Then he said, "If sar don't mind, can my mother accompany you
when you are coming back here? She is a village woman, sar, and has not
seen much of the outside world." I thought about it. I had no problem with
that. "Where will she board the train?" I asked. "At Palakkad Junction
itself. I will convey the message to her through telephone that she is to
meet you at the station." "All right, Shiju." So I went home for Onam and
spent the festive occasion with my parents at their house. My elder sister
and her family also came there. It was a nice experience. I forgot all
about Shiju and his mother and remembered about them only when my leave was
over and I was getting ready to go to Palakkad railway station. I wondered
then how I was going to recognize Shiju's amma. She should be about forty
or forty-five, I thought. But how would I recognize her. Palakkad railway
station is crowded most of the time. But still, I was able to locate
Shiju's amma without difficulty. Or, to be more exact, she spotted me.
Her daughter and son-in-law had come with her to see her off. They had
together reached the railway station early in the evening, after a long
bus-ride of three hours from their village. She had seen me standing on
the platform and had pointed me out to the son-in-law, who had then come up
to me and asked me whether I was Anandan Menon of the Duro Shoe Factory. I
asked Shiju's mother (her name was Padma) how she was able to recognize me.
"Shiju gave me a good description of you, sar?" She replied. I looked at
her and my very first thought was that she did not at all look like Shiju.
Shiju was dark and lean. She was a fair-complexioned woman and looked
healthy. She seemed to be around thirty-five, but she could have been
older. Her skin had a healthy shine to it and perhaps that was making her
look younger. I gently asked her not to call me `sar'. "Call me Nandu,
Amma," I told her. "Everyone at my home calls me Nandu." At which she
smiled, a good-natured smile. But she did not stop calling me `sar', which
I found somewhat embarrassing. I noticed that all three of them were
wearing sandalwood-paste marks on their forehead. "Oh, I see that you have
been to the temple," I said. There was a small but famous temple close to
the railway station. They all nodded with a smile. A moment later, the
daughter and son-in-law left the place without even saying a proper
goodbye. I guessed that they were too eager to get rid of Padma. I noticed
that she was hurt by their conduct, and she did her best to hide it from
me. We sat down on a bench and did not talk much. It started raining and
the platform became a crowded place. Our train came at nine. We boarded
it in the general compartment and, though it was packed, we were lucky to
find a place to sit. She was reluctant to sit next to me at first and I
had to ask her a couple of times to take her seat before it was occupied by
someone else. She sat down and fell asleep very quickly, unknowingly
resting her head on my shoulder. Maybe the bus journey in the evening had
been very tiring. I was afraid of sleeping because we would reach Katpadi
somewhere in the middle of the night or in the early morning. And I did
not want to miss that. I had to positively reach my workplace the next
day. So I tried my best to keep awake. But I dozed off after a while and
woke up only when someone cried out that the train had reached Katpadi. I
hurriedly woke up Shiju's amma and we got down just in time. I looked at
my watch. It was five o'clock in the morning. The train was a bit late.
We started to go out of the station. I was hoping to find a taxi outside.
Buses would not start running until it was eight. Imagine my dismay when I
learnt from the station-master that there would be no taxi or buses plying
that day because of a twenty-four hours Tamil Nadu bandh called by a
political party in the wake of some communal riots in certain parts! "Tell
me, is there no way we can find a taxi?" I asked him. "Not even if the
gods ask," he replied with a smile. I thought about it. It was a
four-hour bus journey from Katpadi to my place of work. So walking that
long distance was simply out of question. "What shall we do, sar?" Shiju's
mother asked me gently in a concerned voice. "Don't worry, amma. We will
find a way." I asked the station-master if we could stay in the
waiting-room of the station until the bandh was over. He told me that we
could, but that it was not at all safe so he would not recommend it. Then
I asked him if there was a lodge nearby. He said that there was one. But
he was afraid that it would not contain any vacant rooms. The bandh had
been a surprise for many people who had got down at that station. Anyway,
I and Shiju's mother went to this lodge, a dilapidated two-storey building
and met the person who worked as the receptionist. And he said that there
was just one room vacant, but it was too small for two people to stay.
"There is no bigger room?" I asked. He shook his head. He said, "But you
both will be able to adjust, since you are only mother and son. It is
better for you to take it, sar, since it is the last. Today everything
will be shutdown and no vehicles will run. It is better to stay indoors
today." So I took it. He gave me the key and directed us to go up a narrow
flight of stairs, to the very end of a dark corridor having a row of tiny
rooms. Room No.69. Before we went to our room I used the telephone at the
reception desk to call my boss and tell him about the situation. He was
sympathetic and told me that he was aware of the bandh and since it was an
unforeseen event he could extend my leave for one more day. The room was
no bigger than a bathroom. Infact, it was so small that it could have been
easily mistaken for a cupboard. Somehow a tiny bed had been squeezed into
it. It had a small mirror on the wall and a tiny window with a single
shutter. There was a dirty-looking wash-basin fitted under the mirror. I
looked at the room and wondered how we were going to adjust there. Shiju's
mother read my thoughts and she suddenly said that she could stay out in
the corridor since it would be difficult for both of us to adjust in that
tiny room. In the corridor? I quickly smiled and said that there was no
need of doing that, that it was alright, that somehow we should be able to
manage. We put our things under the bed. The room did not obviously have
an attached toilet or bathroom. We would have to use the combined toilets
and bathrooms at the other end of the corridor. I undid the bolts of the
small window and pushed the shutter open. Immediately, I closed it again
because an unbearable stench entered the room through the window. "Ugh!
It is so awful!" I exclaimed. I peeped out through the dusty glass of the
window and saw that the area below, which was actually the backyard of the
lodge, was being used as a garbage dumping ground. "The place is full of
garbage. We cannot open this window. I'll report it to the receptionist."
I looked at her. She looked very tired. "Amma, do you want to use the
toilet?" I asked her. She shook her head. She looked nervous and worried,
a rustic woman, getting a rough taste of the outside world. I put a hand
on her shoulder and gently told her that there was no need to worry. She
smiled briefly. I asked her to lie on the bed and rest while I went to the
toilet to freshen up. She told me that it was okay, that she was not
tired. But her face told me otherwise. "Amma," I told her, "I am like your
son. I have a mother just like you at my home in Palakkad. So don't be
shy before me, okay." She smiled and nodded. She seemed to relax a bit
now. But she told me that she would not use the bed, that she would lie on
the floor. "Why? No, amma," I said. "You lie on the bed. I will lie on
the floor." When she heard this tears rose up in her eyes. She said, "You
are a very good man, sar. I wish my son-in-law was like you. No, let me
sleep on the floor. I am used to sleeping on the floor, son." I realized
that it was futile to argue with her on this matter. "Okay," I said. "But
use the bed now, since it is free at the moment." She nodded, but still
looked reluctant. The receptionist appeared at the doorway and announced
that if we required breakfast and lunch he could supply it from a nearby
restaurant. The restaurant was shut, but its kitchen was open. So I
ordered some idlis and dosas and tea. I also complained to him about the
foul smell. He said that he would do something about it and left. I took
out my toilet items and went out of the room. Just as I had expected, the
bathroom was no better. It looked like it had not been cleaned for a year.
I took a bath and returned fifteen minutes later. I found that the door of
our room was bolted from inside. I knocked lightly and she said from
inside, "Just a moment, sar." When she opened the door a minute later I
noticed that she had changed her clothes. She was now in a yellow sari
with maroon border. The sari looked old and faded. She probably wore it
at home. She was getting ready for her stay in the lodge. She told me
that the food had come. I asked her then why she did not start eating and
she said that she wanted to wait until I returned. After that she went to
the bathroom for a quick freshening up and then we had our breakfast
together, sitting on the small bed. She now started asking me questions
about my family. She asked me whether I was married. I said no. She
asked me about how Shiju was doing at the workplace. I answered all her
questions gently. Evidently, she had grown to like me. But that was not a
new thing. Everybody who got to know me liked me. From her words I came
to know that Shiju had already told her many things about me and my work at
the factory. Thus we sat talking until we had finished all the idlis and
dosas. Then she got up to wash her hand.