‘What about playing patience with her?’ he thought as he began to explore the alternatives. ‘Where would all that lead me to? Isn’t she coy to my advances without herself giving anything away? Oh, how my wooing is warming her like a glove. Won’t she like to have it that way as long as she could? Moreover, when I can’t seduce her in the euphoric beginning, how can I win her over later, when familiarity would have bred contempt? Patience cannot be the right tactic to checkmate women into resigning, so it seems. Of course, time is the essence of an affair, to get into, as well as to get out of it, isn’t it?’
‘Well, nothing could be gained by playing the waiting game with her,’ he resolved at length. ‘I’ve got to take chances to improve the odds. So, let me draft a smart letter and hand it over to her. If she complains to Sathyam, so be it. What more have I got to lose if she is not inclined, after all that?’
After penning the missive that night, he thought about the mode of its delivery, ‘If I try to give it at her home, she might refuse to take it. And even if I force it on her, she could tear it in my face. Well, I’ve to confound her so that she won’t have the wits to refuse. Then, having taken it, she won’t be able to resist the temptation of reading it, isn’t it? Of course, once she goes through it, she can’t keep me in the cold for long, can she? If only I could thrust it upon her, won’t she wide open her golden gate of lust for me? And then, the rest would be our erotic history.’
Having hit upon the winning move at length, he couldn’t sleep for long in anticipation. But he woke up early to take on Roopa as she came out of the Vinayaka Typewriting Institute. Accosting her at a street corner, he took her hand and thrust his letter.
‘What’s all this?’ she protested in confusion.
‘I’m dying,’ he said with apparent passion. ‘Read the prescription, and administer the medicine.’
Before she could utter a word, he drove away out of her sight. Though stunned at the development, she looked around instinctively. And finding none in the vicinity, she composed herself readily, and heaving a sigh of relief, she paced up to her home with her contemplation for company.
‘What else is it, if not his love letter,’ she thought in bewilderment. ‘How dare he force the letter on me? What made him think that he could have his way with me? Did I give him any cause for hope? But obsessed as I’m with my Raja, how could I have coalesced with him? Well, it looks like there was a mix-up between my love for Raja and liking for Prasad in my interaction with the latter. Still, how could have I expected something like this from him? Oh, why didn’t I fling his missive at his face? If only I had done that, wouldn’t that have served him right? But it was not to be. What should I do with it now?’