Blacked in Goa

[Givemeextra]

“Seat number 50....seat number 50....” Mira mumbled as she walked through the narrow passage in the train compartment.

“Aaahhh...seat number 50...” She said triumphantly as I found her seat but was a little disappointed seeing another man sitting on it. The middle aged man looked up to her and was a little startled to see a young woman giving him a nasty look. He realised that he was in her seat as she waved my ticket in his face. Grudgingly, yet lazily he stood up and walked away.

She continued staring at him till he walked out of sight. She threw my backpack on the berth and made herself comfortable next to it. She was the first passenger to enter the compartment. The train started from this station and she knew it would fill up completely within no time. She pushed her back pack under the lower berth which had been allotted to her. She always preferred the lower berth as it offered her the flexibility to move around instead of clumsily climbing down from the upper berth.

The air conditioners of the compartment had just been switched on and it was still hot inside. Mira wiped the sweat off her neck and forehead and just sat back and waited for the journey to start. Slowly, more and more passengers started coming in and in no time the compartment looked full.

They had been planning this trip for months. They as in Mira and her husband Raghav. Raghav was stationed abroad and she was back here in India. They had been married for six years of which Raghav spent 4 years abroad.

She noticed the one berth in front of her were still vacant. She hoped and prayed for a good travelling companion; someone who wouldn't be a bore like a typical Indian family or some creep. She gazed out of the window, watching trains slowly chug past, people walking on the platforms further. The rumbling of the train air conditioner, the sounds of many passengers talking, babies crying, the stench of average Indian train station. Alas....her vacation was starting.

As she looked out of the train window, she recalled how her marriage to Raghav; arranged by their parents, as it happens in most cases in India. Raghav was a couple of years older than her at 26 years old. He graduated from a prestigious engineering college and India and landed a lucrative job in software company. Mira had just finished my MBA and was fishing for a job when her parents told her about Raghav.

The match was too good to be denied, her parents claimed and a year later, she was married. Raghav was a good husband. Kind, supportive and good looking. Mira too landed a job and they both set out to build our dream world together. They bought a house, two cars and were steadily building a great financial portfolio.

Their sex life was great. She was a virgin on her wedding night and the moment Raghav deflowered her, she fell deeper in love with him. The moment he made his first move on her, I knew Raghav wasn't a virgin. She wasn't bothered about it but rather was happy that she didn't have an amateur to make love to. The next couple of years they fucked like rabbits. Spontaneity and inventiveness was Raghav's forte which made her toes curl so very often.

However, as years passed staleness set into the marriage and things slowed down as they usually do. They both got busy with their respective careers as the responsibilities at work grew. Raghav started gaining weight and his hair line starting to recede. Mira joked once that before the wedding, Raghav’s stomach was in and his hair was out and now after years of marriage, his stomach is out and his hair is in.

Mira too on the other hand had gained weight but she made it a point to work hard to keep the weight to a minimum. Her waist size, though had grown by a couple of inches but her breasts and her butt had gained quite a lot. From a modest B cup, she was now a proud owner of large C cup.

Raghav's onsite posting to the United States slowed things down a lot. She wanted to go with her husband but since her company wasn't sending me to the States and I wasn't getting a work visa there, my hopes of living with my husband were dashed. They visited each other twice a year and she counted the days before his two-year stint abroad would come to an end.

This trip was just another visit Raghav had planned. But instead of going through the same routine of meeting family and friends on his whirlwind trips, Mira suggested, in fact she put my foot down and demanded that she and her husband must take a holiday; just the two of them alone for a fortnight that he would be here.

So, she was in the train on the way to Goa and Raghav would join me the next day when he'd land at Dabolim Airport in Goa. So here she was, on her way to a vacation with her husband.

A while later, she felt a light jerk and I realised that the train was moving. Her week long journey was starting as the train slowly chugged out of the station. The train driver honked the horn as is customary at the beginning of every journey.

As the train slowly picked up speed, moving passed the platform, she realised that the berths in front of her were still empty. Perhaps she wasn't going to get any company or maybe someone would join later on. For now, she was happy to be alone.

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The next morning, after an uneventful journey, the train pulled in to Madgaon station and everyone started getting off the train. She saw her fellow passengers with their bag packs on their backs as they walked away towards the best time of their life.

Meanwhile, Mira boarded a cab and head straight to the hotel at Morjhim beach. She had meticulously researched everything for this trip to make it a perfect get away for her and her husband. The hotels, the sights to see, the places to visit, the whole itinerary was planned with precision. She wanted this vacation to be perfect. Only thing missing was Raghav who was on his way to Dabolim airport and would arrive soon.

'Still stuck here' Raghav's message read. Mira was surprised to get his message. She thought he would be on his flight to Dabolim. The moment she read it, a sense of dread filled her heart. What did he mean still stuck here! She had to find out and I called him. A couple of rings later he picked up the call.

“Where are you?” She asked him.

“Still at Heaththrow.” He replied, sounding dejected.

“What! You're still there? You were supposed to land here by now.” She replied. Raghav was to fly from London to Dabolim and should have been here by afternoon but he was still there.

“The damn volcano in Iceland erupted and the flights across Europe are delayed. I've been stuck here at the airport for a day now!” He replied.

“When will the flights resume?” Mira enquired.

“Looking at the news report and the rumours going around; I don't think I will be able to get out of here for at least.... 2 days.” He said, especially hesitating to say '2 days'

“2 Days....What the hell!!!” Mira yelled. She yelled so loud that the cab driver turned back to look at her in surprise.

“Calm down honey...” Raghav tried to calm her down.

“Calm down...Calm down...How the hell am I supposed to calm down?” She yelled again. This was supposed to be their time together after almost a year and now that 2 days out of a week were supposed to go waste, she was in no mood to calm down.

“You only got an 8-day vacation sanctioned, of which you would be travelling for 2 days and I get barely 6 days with you and now this!!!” Mira said as tears welled up my eyes.

“Honey...relax...it is just a vacation...we can go later.” He said and that pissed me off even more.

“Just a vacation!!! You and your stupid on site friends are having a blast over there. Your project gets delayed every time and I end up just seeing your weekend getaway pics on Facebook. When will I have my own getaway pics!!!” She yelled at him.

“Ohh C'mon” He said raising his voice a little, “It's not that I am having a blast over here...It is not my fault that the project deadline gets extended every time. I am suffering here too.” He said in a tone of defending himself.

“Yeah....that is some suffering you've got!! Your trip to Florida last month was torture wasn't it and the trip to Atlantic City and Aspen and god knows where else...all that was so excruciating wasn't it!”

“What can I do then? Sit at home and weep? The company isn't ready to sponsor your visa and you aren't willing to leave your job to join me here! What the fuck do you want me to do Mira?” He shouted in the phone. His voice was loud enough to make me move the phone away from my ear.

Mira didn't say anything and started crying. She just couldn't control my tears anymore.

“Hello....Hello Mira...” She heard Raghav's voice from the phone. She was by now angry, dejected and depressed knowing that the vacation that she was so looking forward to was destroyed. She just didn't feel like continuing the argument and cut the phone call.

She covered my face with my hands and wept. She didn't want to fight with her husband but these fights had become a regular affair these days. She missed him and she was sure he missed her too but the distance, the different time zones and all the time apart was taking its toll on their relationship.

“Madam...we have reached the hotel.” The cab driver said. Mira opened my eyes and looked out of the window. It was indeed the hotel she had booked rooms in.

The driver carried her luggage to the reception and left after him paid him the fare. The hotel receptionist checked her in and she was soon walking to my room. The hotel was a small property. She had read about it on the website. It had just 10 rooms but had every other amenity. It was very clean, very centrally located and had everything that a guest could want including a swimming pool and 24-hour internet connection. But most of all, the reviews she read about the service in this hotel drew me to it.

The hotel was a single stories structure spread out over a couple of acres of land. The facade of the hotel was made of beautiful red sand stone which is available in abundance in costal India. The outer corridors were lined with green plants and a few coconut trees.

There was a porch in front of my room where a coffee table with two chairs were placed. The door of the room was antique styled, with designs carved beautifully on it. The hotel had a nice antique, old college look but the room inside were as modern as they could be. There was a large king size bed in the middle of the room and two lamp tables on its either sides. A small fridge was kept in one corner of the room.

There was also a table to keep my things, a large wooden cupboard, and a large flat screen television. Needless to say there was also a large split AC to cool the room. 3 walls of the room were painted white and one wall, right behind the bed was painted cyan blue with a painting hanging on it.

The bathroom was huge with a bath tab and a separate shower compartment. Mira had booked this room after seeing the pics of the tub and the shower compartment, fantasizing about how she and Raghav would 'use' it.

The bell boy walked away after keeping the luggage in the room. Mira just collapsed on the soft bed. It had smooth, sparkling white sheets with few blue pillows.

She checked my cell phone; there was no call, no message from Raghav. She was disappointed and rather angry. The way he yelled at her during the call was really uncalled for and now that he hadn't even called me made her angrier.

'Fuck it' She said to herself. She resolved to enjoy the two days before Raghav arrived. She decided that she won't lock herself in the room and sulk over her ruined plans. She would go out, see places and enjoy even if she has to do it alone.

She walked out of the room after a shower. Wearing a long floral skirt and a top, Mira walked to the hotel reception. She asked the manager to arrange for a rental scooter which she would travel with. She went to the dining room of the hotel and ordered a large breakfast for myself.