Editorial

Starting with a short story as an editorial this time…

Love, Lust, and Longings (Episode – 1)

One: Sunshine on the silk route
“It is quarter past nine, already, Nini. Pull up things fast.” Afroz stroke the last few strands of Nini’s hair from his face and started caressing her bare shoulders with his manicured fingers.
Nini was still in a dazed state; her curly locks again fell all over Afroz’s face, as she held him tight, nibbling and licking his lips like she did the stormy night before. Afroz’s stubbly face was tinged with a streak of vermillion dabbed on the side of the nose, the vermillion that was a burning sensation on the curious parting of Nini’s soft, silky, black hair. Nini loved his straight-edged, sharp, pointed nose that stood as a mark of confidence, the chiselled tip that could easily dig into the sliding, buttery crevice of Nini’s navel.
“Sona please, not now, we have nobody returning, no doodhwala, no maid, no in-laws…nobody…only you and me, all cloistered.” Nini’s bare bosom was now alluring Afroz again to that moment of ecstasy that they always share.
“Oho, cloistered, haan, nobody, then let me just worship my goddess Nini, let me just sit in that humble position at the goddess’ feet and caress her from the toe to the top.” Afroz wanted to resort to the love-game again, with Nini’s hands now clasping him tight over her taut, brown nipples.
“Aahh sona, sona, I don’t know what would have happened if you were not there in my life. I am…I am just mad about you, my Afroz, only mine…my Greek god, my baby…” and Nini kept on playing with his fingers as they forayed into the different undulated areas of her body, trying to explore some unmatched moments of love. Winter mornings in Kolkata never gave her such warmth before, neither the room heater in her North-Kolkata home nor the blanket that Sameer purchased last year from Manali. Winters in Kolkata smelt of hilly laliguras now, spread all over Afroz’s naked torso, tight shoulder and shapely buttocks that heaved in heavenly pleasure as he went on rowing his boat steadily.
“It is time to go, but I am not in a mood to leave my beautiful rhododendrons, my laliguras”, Afroz said in a slightly hissing tone, “I shall come back and start a fresh painting on the canvas, goddess Nandini. And this time I will make sure that my goddess is all decked up only in flowers. Only flowers. Nothing else.”
“Ahaa, what fantasies, chalo, go now. You have your art classes. The little children must be waiting.” Nini pulled up her panty fast, as Afroz still gave a lingering look at her, a look of admiration, and a look that made the whole of her body blush with a burst of melon-red grandeur. Afroz planted a long kiss on Nini, or Nandini’s lips, and said goodbye for the day.
“Can’t you just come to me forever? Can’t we just leave the city and settle somewhere else? Can’t we? I mean I do not have the burden of a child as of now, and I want to get out of this detestable marriage sona, I was just thinking…”
“Thinking? You have started to think also? Nandini, please. Don’t get those strings attached again. You know I am just a struggling painter from Bangladesh, with no proper shelter in Kolkata. If anybody gets to know about this relationship, then even the art school will kick me out.”
Nandini was wondering now, faltering at moments, from whom did she want commitment? Her husband Sameer was out of Kolkata for his pharmaceutical job, obviously with Stella, his secretary to comfort him in every possible way. Afroz was her next-door neighbour, and he too put a question mark on how she ‘ought’ not to think. Even her mother-in-law sometimes snapped at her, often yelled too, using her vocal chords she to make the household a better place to live in. Nandini bolted the main door and started thinking again. What if she could repeat her life with Afroz? What if she could just get out of this marriage? Bustling Kolkata was gearing up for another day-sprint, and it gave her a neglectful look as she entered the bathroom to wash away the last stains of Afroz’s lovemaking.
(to be continued)

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Happy Sunday!!!

Sreetanwi Chakraborty