Vyabhichar (adultery)

They are genuinely in love with each other. The power couple of his social group. 

She, however, prefers not to associate with any social groups. 

Natasha and Sanjh met young.  Second-year of Uni, when they chose to live away from home. And since then, they have been living together. 

Though now married for more than 7 years, their marriage was never a significant point in their love-relationship.

 And one day, ‘TROUBLE’ found its way to their paradise!

Sanjh, while awaiting for his mum’s arrival at the Adelaide International Airport, noticed a young girl – confused. Walking from one end of the arrival hall to the other, continuously scanning through people.

‘She must have been waiting for someone late,’ thought Sanjh. She was restless, couldn’t sit, repeatedly looking into her phone. Sanjh paid attention to her more than he usually does to strangers, stranger females. But this one was different! Her charm was worth all the attention!

‘She must be a student who landed in Australia for the first time,’ he thought. 

Expectedly, his mum arrived, and he forgot about the girl. Soon, they were about to leave the arrival-hall but were approached from behind.

The girl said her brother was meant to be coming to pick her up, but he was not there. Her phone had died, and to make things worse, her charger doesn’t fit Australian sockets.

It seemed Sanjh’s mother recognised her as the same girl – who sat across her in the flight and even helped her fill her arrival form.  

Sanjh had no hesitation left to help the girl, he went ahead and offered his phone. She made a couple of calls, and everything got sorted in no time.

The girl’s brother got late because he took a wrong exit, but was now only minutes away.

“Thank you so much” She finally showed her beautiful smile! 

They went their ways after the customary goodbyes.

Sanjh’s life was busy, like always. Most of his day would be spent dealing with clients, training the staff, and various meetings at his fast-growing consultancy firm.  He started a small firm around 5-6 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. 

Unarguably, he was a workaholic. Working long hours, never taking a day off, ending up going to work despite being sick, talking about work over the weekend-at drinks, during parties, everywhere, all the time. 

Was it exhausting for his wife? 

That’s a valid question. But somehow Sanjh’s busy-ness never caused any trouble between the two. They loved their life together. 

“You deserve to work for yourself now!” Six years ago, at a corporate award function, Natasha suggested Sanjh when he was awarded the best employee for the third time in a row! They sat across a table, sipping their drink and discussing on their next step in life. At the same time, people were busy wooing office girls including eyeing other’s partners, or to say the least, judging people’s poor fashion choices!

 ‘Don’t they get to see each other at home?’, someone at the party whispered to others, which was kind of right, But Sanjh and Natasha were just themselves.

‘Let’s dance, it’s my favourite song!’ she ran to the dance floor.

Sanjh finished his last sip before moving up, Not because he wanted to dance, but he hated guys dancing with his wife!  

She was too precious to even be shared a glance!

That gaze of hers that night, showed her unconditional support for him. She freed him of the potential failures in case of an uncalculated risk he takes. There was no other way to progress.

“Resigned from my job. Smith is a bastard.” He texted his wife within a week. 

“Resigned from my job. Smith is a bastard.” He texted his wife within a week. 

“Proud of you,  Let’s make you feel special tonight!”

 “And yes, don’t blame Smith!”

Natasha was happy but not surprised! 

Today, 6 years later, Sanjh was telling this story briefly to the Panel-Members he hired to conduct an interview at his firm.  He was also on the penal. 

The next interviewee was a girl named Ragii – well-presented, soft-spoken and stylish. With her great sense of fashion, had she joined the office, the aesthetic of the place would undeniably rise. 

Being stunning, may prove to be a reason of envy and competition, the motivation it creates eventually benefits the business.

Her broad and frequent smile suggested she was a naïve and thinks from heart. 

A breath of fresh air, she was!

But Selection-Panellists don’t buy breath of fresh air for $3000/month. They buy mint instead! 

Ragii was selected for her positive attitude and skills.

After the interview, people were chitchatting in the office foyer, Sanjh’s attention was again caught by a familiar face. 

“I am sorry, I have seen you somewhere” he suggested.

“You helped me at the airport”………. “thanks one more time…………….what a small world.” 

“ohhhh………yes, I remember…..So you reached home safe that night?”

“Well, I think so!” 

Both laughed!

Soon Ragii made a space for herself in the circle! She was everything that a young girl of her age would be like. Although she was a beginner at her trade, her clients never complained.

This accounted for the admiration she received in the central office but not for the attention she caught of the young blocks!

Soon, Natasha also heard about this girl in a dinner conversation with Sanjh. She always took a great interest in the office matters but chose never to interfere directly. 

Natasha works as an engineer, a degree which she earned to prove her family wrong. They believed she would never make it to a decent college because of her dreamy attitude, but they were mistaken!

These days she’s busy taking care of her twins, along with her favourite veggie-garden at home. She also loves counselling at the local library over the weekends. What a great way to meet new people!

One night when Sanjh came home, Natasha was nowhere to be seen. He heard some noise in the garage.

“Yaar (mate), I just came home after 13 hours of work, and you’re still busy here. What the hell are you up to now?” Sanjh complained after finally finding her in the middle of what seemed like a mess.

 She was busy practicing her newly found passion – the pottery wheel!

Her hands were dipped in the muddy water. Her hair, face, legs, clothes all wiped her muddy hands, which suggested she had been there for a while, disconnected with the rest of the world. These days she could be found submerged in the joy of creating and nurturing, a joy one can feel far before perfecting the two skills! 

As she sensed someone standing next to her. She looked up calmly, unaware of Sanjh’s struggles to find her in the last 20 minutes.

“You’re ignoring me these days! What’s going on?” he complained.

She didn’t say anything, just washed her hands and lead him into the house!

In their conversation that night, Natasha noticed something different about how Sanjh talked, precisely when he spoke about Ragii.

Natasha just listened to everything that he had to say. Once he fell asleep, she silently slipped back into the garage to continue with her desire to get her hands dirty!

In a month or so, the APP (Annual Professional Partnership) session was organised at Sanjh’s office. That session, all professionals come together to make suggestions for possible improvements to the contract documents.

Ragii was next to talk through her suggestions. In her high heels, she walked confidently to the front, and started presenting. 

But her accentuated curves didn’t let anyone hear a word, no matter how hard people tried, girls and boys alike! Emphasized was her collar bones in her one-off shoulder top, hair tied neatly at the back had left the neck bare and appealing. Her dazzling earrings softly touched her cheeks while she talked.

Sanjh felt a strong attraction that day! But acted like he was only listening to the presentation. He rejected his own wild thoughts just to bring his focus back to the discussion. He noticed her playful gaze, as well as her repeated attempts to hide her desires!

Ragii had different vibes that day, she was on a high since morning. Right after sitting in her car, she turned the music up, let her hair cover half her face, folded her sleeves, unbuttoned her shirt, sang like crazy, and teased strangers on her way to the office. 

Of two men she had pursued in the past, Ragii knew she deserved better! After all, it was a betrayal of her charm if men couldn’t figure out how she wanted to be loved! Letting them into her forte was a considerable favour in the first place, rest is their job to figure out! 

‘You need someone more mature’ a dear friend of her once suggested!

Ragii might have found someone mature at her office or why would she stand so close to  Sanjh sometimes even made excuses to go to him, which he was well aware of.

“Isn’t that ambiguous? Can we be a bit more specific over here?” She would bend a bit on the table and twist her waist.  She found playful behaviour extremely amusing. 

In the evening, over drinks, things went a step ahead! 

 Sanjh and Ragii stayed until everyone else left, even Chris and Karan had gone. The latter usually wouldn’t go until kicked out. 

Probably, they were left alone to enjoy each other’s company. It’s almost 2o’clock now, they were talking, smiling and sipping on their drink. None of them were ready to leave. The game was becoming more interesting.

“I really like you!” her heartbeat rose even higher as she finally told Sanjh.

“Thank you,” he handled it pretty well, being expert at these games, probably.

“what was Karan saying before he left?”

“He asked me out and……… Chris too!”

Ma******* hain dono (Both are M*****f*****s)! Pardon my language. They wanna sleep with every girl they see!

“And you?” she interrupted him.

He said Nothing,  just kept hiding his disbelief and pleasure under a subtle expression on his face.

Suddenly a phone call got him to leave abruptly. 

Next couple of weeks Ragii was away for her university exams. She was badly missed, her pictures on the social media were checked, texts -disguised as office work, were sent. Flowers and Chocolate boxes with little love notes used to begin her day. 

The day after she returned, she entered his room with a coffee cup “When did you return? And how do you know I badly needed a coffee, thank you so much.” 

“A strong Coffee is what you like”, she whispered.

She got up and went around the table, leaned on him, she asked seductively. 

“Did you miss me?”

She looked irresistible. Sanjh knew he was playing with fire, but he chose to burn than not pursue this path. He held her from the waist and pulled her closer to feel the warmth of her body. As soon as he leaned a little closer……

The whole office came into his room. People were shocked, they couldn’t believe Sanjh could do this. Some had started filming on their phones. 

SOON THE SCANDAL SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE!

“That’s not true, I can explain, please” he screamed in his dream.

“Are you ok?” Natasha, who was asleep next to him, asked while patting him softly on his back.

“F***…………..Thank God it was a dream!” 

“Saw something scary again?” She gave him a glass of water. 

“I need to tell you something.”

“What happened?” she asked after noticing the signs of a more significant trouble on his face.

“It wasn’t a scary dream, I need to tell you something. Look I have nothing to do with anyone” 

“You know that girl in the office, I have to fire her tomorrow, I can’t put my reputation at risk. She has been behaving weird around me, or probably I am behaving weird around her. In my dream, I saw myself making out in my own bloody office!”

Natasha didn’t react, but she wasn’t alarmed either.

“What did she do?”

“Nothing much, nothing really…but…..she…….!”

“Don’t worry, she’s seeing Chris.” Natasha smiled.

“What are you hiding, Natasha?” He asked suspiciously.

Natasha talked while laughing “I am sorry Sanjh, I didn’t know you would be this scared! The drinks night, Ragii kind of suggested if she could be herself around my husband. I said it was her life!” Both of us knew what she meant though, but I love proving people wrong”

Sanjh was disillusioned. “So it was a game between both of you” 

He pulled Natasha’s and carried her on his shoulder. His grip was so firm, she couldn’t move.

“Leave me Sanjh, what are you doing. Let me off.”

“I am going to kill you. You think everything is a joke.”

“Please, don’t go down the stairs.” “Careful.” She kept screaming, but he carried her straight to the backyard in the freezing winter night, and threw her in straight into the pool!

She swam out of the pool, shivering and gasping for air. Bare feet and cracking, she made her way to the fireplace right next to where he was sitting quietly. 

She squeezed water off her hair, then took off her drenched clothes one by one!

Sanjh could no longer fake his anger!

She moved closer to him, throwing her arms around his neck, letting him feel every inch of her body. 

“What if something happened?” he whispered while softly rubbing his beard on her neck.

“You would look for me in every woman, and that would be very disappointing for the poor other woman!” she giggled in confidence.

Sanjh was secretly impressed with her, but being a man, he chose to express his emotions through strength-exhibition. He pushed Natasha on the couch, leaned over and made love as if it was his last.

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Pic Credit- latestlaws.com