Aunt Bumblee was ten years younger than her husband Hashu, not unusual with arranged marriages in India. The privileged classes were entitled to marry much younger women, regardless of their own age.

Hashu’s lack of physical strength apart, he was even lousy in bed. This was obvious from Bumblee’s reactions to his performance and Dilip Dada’s take on what Peeping Tom Harry described to him. In simple terms, he was a premature ejaculator.

One day when Harry was busy with his homework, there was a knock on his balcony door. It was an excited Bumblee who wanted him to see what was going on, in the street below. No one had ever witnessed something like this before, right at the centre of the Park Circus road. Such things happened only in villages, not in a big city.

The traffic had stopped to witness a horse and a mare in action, a rare sight, unlike a dog and a bitch together. Bumblee pulled Harry by his hand as she pointed out the horse with an overly long penis attempting to mount the mare. The mare was still, unlike a bitch on heat that runs around on being chased by several dogs. It was quite a sight watching the horse mount the mare, with its front legs encircling the mare’s belly from behind. The pumping action was a long insertion-and-withdrawal affair, not the frenetic exchange between a dog and a bitch. A dog’s dick head gets inflated after intercourse and remains engaged until it reverts to its original size and can be withdrawn. Therefore, a dog and a bitch remain entangled even after climax. This is purity we ridicule. But the horse and mare return to normalcy immediately as if nothing has happened. People on the road burst out with laughter. 

Bumblee didn’t. She squeezed Harry’s arm all through. Then she placed her hand on his little one, which responded by turning erect. The warmth of her body and breath was exciting. The member turned bigger and peeped out of the Peeping Tom’s knickers. All charged up, Bumblee pushed him inside her room and planted a hot kiss on his lips. 

“I know you have been watching me from here,” she said, pointing at the slit in the curtain covering the window glass. He nodded in innocence and his baby face made her kiss him all over. Her warm hands felt him under his shirt, then stripped him completely. Feeling shy, he covered himself by hugging her as she fell on the bed, taking him with her. She quickly removed her sari blouse and petticoat. Seeing her in just a bra and panty was unbelievably erotic. He had never seen a full-grown woman semi-nude. She was a fantasy come alive and so unlike the skinny and screechy girls in school.

She unhooked her bra and pulled his head down to her cleavage. This was paradise, thought Harry. Suddenly, there was an announcement. Amrita was bending down to make his seat rest upright and fasten his seatbelt. “We will be landing soon,” she said, her partly-exposed breast in the line of his vision.

Harry’s thoughts went back to Bumblee. He had the perfect teacher and he wasn’t even eleven years of age. She was smart enough to keep her distance in the presence of other family members and restricted their rendezvous to twice a week when Harry would be busy with homework and Hashu toiling in the office.

When Bumblee became pregnant, she and Hashu moved into a bigger house. Harry was twelve at that time. Hashu was thrilled to bits. He hosted a party to which Dilip was also invited. Dilip brought along Cindy, a beautiful Anglo-Indian woman he was involved with. They came for a short while and excused themselves after they had wished the couple.

Although young Harry had never spoken about Bumblee, Dilip was sharp enough to read his face and see the maturity he had acquired. At the age of twelve he was a proud dad!

Harry reflected on the highs and lows of his life and realised that the lows were ups in disguise, as most of one’s learning came from them. If only we have faith in our fate, he thought, we will know that the downs are precursors to the ups.

The downs had been earth-shattering, yet Harry could only smile thinking about them, because he could now see through them. Like a joyful roller coaster ride; all you remembered was the excitement, not so much the horrific moments. If only he had kept the faith at that time!

There was a barrage of messages on his phone when he switched it on after they landed. One of them was from Raima in Bombay. She was taking the flight out to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival.

As Harry stepped out of the Departure Hall, he ran into Arjun and Natasha who were there to receive him.

To be continued…