‘Thank you all,’ said Raja Rao, sounding closure after they had dinner, ‘for a wonderful evening.’
‘It’s our pleasure as well,’ echoed the guests.
Back home, in time, Raja Rao told Sandhya, ‘Can’t we look back with satisfaction?’
‘Of course,’ she said, making herself smug in his embrace. ‘And hope for a lovely life as well. I’ve never been happier all my life. Isn’t it all about the power of love?’
‘And the favors of fortune.’ he said fondling her lovingly.
‘But, I’m worried at times,’ she said in apprehension, ‘Isn’t our bliss too good, to last for long.’
‘By some twisted logic of the law of averages,’ said Raja Rao, ‘Roopa’s unfortunate past might as well ensure the future stability of our love triangle.’
‘Well, for all that, going by your logic, it may come true even,’ said Sandhya sharing her thoughts with him. ‘But, what can be said about the strangeness of life and the singularity of the relationships it occasions? To start with, it was the mutual admiration that ushered in my friendship with Roopa. Then, our growing affection found its true expression in our lesbianism, triggered by, of all the things, by her post-nuptial depression! And our chance meeting in New Delhi brought you into my life to provide substance, as well as sustenance to it. Later, your mutual attraction resulted in your passionate liaison that catered to Roopa’s craving for male élan, and yours, for your dusky dame. In the end, it was the reality of relationships that you presented me, helped me color our love triangle on the canvas of our sexuality. And then providentially at Tirupati, spirituality too insensibly seeped into our orgies, enabling us to experience divinity in our lovemaking. And above all, thanks to the innate empathy you have for the fair sex, the idea of woman in liaison loving her husband made you Roopa’s benign flame, to light Sathyam’s way. Oh, that’s life.’
‘Can we imagine our life without her now,’ said Raja Rao contemplatively. ‘What more can we ask from life?’
‘Why not we make a menage a trois with her.,’ Sandhya said dreamily, ‘Oh how we used to jest about it!.’
‘Find him a wife before she files the suit,’ he said joking. ‘But, one shouldn’t be too greedy even in daydreaming.’
‘Contentment is the finest thing,’ she said, sinking into him, ‘even in loveseeking, isn’t it?’
‘Doesn’t it go against the other saying,’ he said, winking at her, ‘that variety is the spice of life?’
‘But then,’ she said, ‘how our life covers both the grounds.’