14-11-2018, 05:35 PM
MAYURI-1
It wasn't surprising to me to that our friendship had grown beyond societal norms. We were four childhood friends, who grew up together and managed to keep in touch with each other, even after our paths separated. Life in a small town, perhaps, has these advantages. Our elite 4-people group expanded to include our wives, as one by one each of my friends got married. With in a matter of couple of years all my friends had gotten married and we had three more adorable people in our group. At 27, I was still after my first love and wouldn't even consider taking the arranged marriage route, as my friends took.
As luck would have it, my friends moved to the United States in pursuit of a bright future and liberal lifestyle. I was still stuck in India, hoping that Mayuri would eventually accept my proposal. I already had couple of job offers from US companies but didn't take them up since I believed that it was only a matter of time before Mayuri accepted my proposal. My friends on the other hand wouldn't understand what was keeping me back. They never gave me a chance with this dove-eyed beauty. So, naturally they were shocked to hear the news of my marriage with Mayuri.
Of all the people, Shrini was very unhappy that I never shared this secret with him. He helped me communicate my feelings to Mayuri back in college when I lacked self belief. I met Mayuri during the final year of my undergraduate studies. She was 6 years junior to us and had just joined the 11th grade class in our junior college. No sooner did she join, word about her beauty started circulating among boys in our college. I still remember - a bunch of folks from our group had made a beeline outside her classroom, just to get a glimpse of her beauty. Although, she was just in her 11th grade, she could put to shame any of the grown up girls with the kind of body she possessed. Being a Kokanastha (Maharashtrian s from coastal part) it was not surprising that she was gifted with a flawless, fair complexion. She was around 5'4", slightly above average height by Indian standards. Her eyes and her lips were her striking features. She had awesome figure - she was neither skinny nor fat but just perfect. It wasn't surprising that there were lots of guys eyeing her and even proposed to her on rose day. Getting introduced to her was very easy for me. I was the college topper all the years and was expected to score very highly in the final year exams as well. However, carrying a meaningful conversation with her was always difficult for me as I would get distracted time and again by her stunning beauty. In no time she knew that I had a crush on her and so did my friends learn about that.
I still didn't have courage to even ask her out, forget about sharing my feelings with her. Fortunately, my friends came to rescue me there. Realizing that I wouldn't be able to muster courage to confront her with my feelings for her, they sent her twenty-five red roses to her on rose day, on my behalf. I was stunned when I came to know about this. I did meet Mayuri several times after that but we never discussed about this. Later I came to know that she thought that I had sent her the roses and that it was just to communicate her about my feelings for her. While she liked my company, she was more interested in her studies at that point in time and hence she never entertained that idea beyond that point. I, however, managed to make good friends with her even after I moved out of college and we regularly kept in touch. My friends were still unaware of this, though. Shrini was with me in the college and was one of the persons who had engineered the rose day proposal. Given this background, he was understandably very pissed with the news. He, at least, expected me to share this secret with him.
I had to pacify him on the phone for a while before he forgave me for holding onto my little secret but only on the condition that I share with him the gory details of our honeymoon. This was something that I should have expected from him. Shrini & Pratik were downright obnoxious at times and recklessly sharing the gory details of their sex life with us. Shrini and Pratik both regarded Mayuri to be very beautiful and would have pursued her if she had been an easy catch. However, they never left an opportunity of talking dirty about any of the attractive females in our group. In particular, both of them enjoyed sharing their fantasies of boning Mayuri, if only they got a chance. Although, they knew I had a crush on her they never really thought I was very serious about her. I was a bit concerned with all the guy talk we had back then when we quite didn't know how things would pan out in the future.
I am digressing here, though. The reason I kept the little secret from everyone was perhaps only to protect my male ego. None of my friends ever thought that I could even woo Mayuri, forget about getting married to her. She was by caste, and a very beautiful girl at that. On the other hand, I was a South Indian, not a and was considerably dark skinned than her. I came to know from a close friend of her that her family was against the idea of Mayuri getting married outside her caste. They definitely didn't want her to get married to a dark skinned guy like me. That's the reason, I was not too optimistic but I didn't stop persisting though. It was only after one of her elder cousins eloped with a guy next door that they were forced to seriously think about Mayuri's future. It seemed Mayuri was very keen on getting married to me but her parents were adamant about not having a South Indian for their son-in-law. Mayuri was in her final year and she had already gotten admission into an US university for her further studies. I too had received my H1B but was deliberately delaying traveling to the US. It didn't take much time after her cousin fled for Mayuri's parents to realize that I was perhaps a much better choice than either a or a for that matter. The fact that Mayuri was just 20 didn't matter and on an auspicious day in the month of February 1997 we got married.
So, finally I got married to the woman of my dreams, or rather a girl of my dreams. We didn't have a very long honeymoon, just a week at the nearest hill station, Matheran. And no I didn't bother sharing the gory details with Shrini or Pratik. In fact, I pretty much avoided contact with them the next couple of months until I finally relocated to the US.
I found a consulting job in one of the high-tech companies in the Silicon Valley and Mayuri joined me a few months later, just before her college started. Mayuri was exceptionally ambitious and it surprised most people to see her get married at such a young age. While, most of our batch mates were enjoying our summer vacations by doing nothing, she was working with her Dad, helping him in his business and understanding the intricacies of Architecture. I had no doubt in my mind that we wouldn't step into the family way before she is into her thirties. It was her hard work and practical knowledge she gained while working with her Dad that enabled her to secure admission into this prestigious college.
Very soon, she was an integral part of our group. Now, our entire elite group was in the US within a 600 mile radius with us being almost at the center. Shrini and Rohini were located in the north near Davis. Pratik and Sneha were located in Fresno, most unlikely area for a software engineer. Vinil and Dolly were located in Los Angeles area. It was very difficult for all of us to meet on a weekly basis, but we made it a point to meet on a monthly basis, at least. And most of the time the meeting was at our place. With frequent meetings, Shrini and Pratik got more of an opportunity to flirt with Mayuri. Mayuri, though, very adroitly handled their lecherous glances and advances. Having exposed to dealing with people in construction business, she knew how to conduct herself among men. I had no doubt that Shrini and Pratik envied me for having such a beautiful wife.
Everything went as it should between friends until the Memorial Day weekend of 1999. Mayuri had just finished her exams and her final project presentation. We had decided to relax at home instead of using the long weekend for sight seeing. All our friends decided to spend the weekend at our place as well. We were outside on the patio having a few drinks and our discussion turned to sex. Shrini was the first one to broach up the topic.
"I have been having sex almost twice a day ever since I got married!" we heard Shrini claim very proudly.
"Really?" I asked eagerly.
"Well it has slowed down these days. Especially the last two years things have mellowed down significantly."
"I guess, that's normal after being married for six years," he added to justify.
Pratik chimed in, "I totally agree!"
"Four years of marriage has had a similar effect on me as well."
Vinil corroborated Shrini and Pratik by saying, "Sex is not everything!"
"Sooner or later there are other aspects of marriage that become more important or pertinent."
And then it was my turn to give my 2 cents.
"Well, I too did it twice in the first six months or so but recently it has been mostly once a day."
Mayuri's studies had significantly curtailed our bedroom encounters, since her course load was very demanding and she was very adamant of finishing it in two years.
"Moreover my consulting job makes it very difficult since I have to travel on a regular basis," I added justifying our low frequency given our fairly new marriage.
"I don't agree with you Vinil," Shrini countered Vinil.
"Other things start becoming more only important after you have kids."
"And none of us have kids yet," he clarified.
"So what are you saying?" asked Pratik.
Shrini looked at our blank expressions and said, "Have you heard the phrase 'Familiarity breeds contempt'"
"Or the phrase 'Variety is the spice of life''" he asked.
"What exactly are you saying," I asked since it seemed too much of a loaded statement to me.
"Well, all I am saying is that we are bored with our mundane life and we need some excitement," Shrini said calmly.
"I agree," both Pratik and Vinil chimed in.
"We need some excitement before we get into the rut of life and have kids," Pratik added.
The more we dwelled on this topic, the more we talked about our mutual experiences and ended up concluding that we needed a little bit of excitement in our life to spike the lost interest in the sex department. Although, I didn't believe Mayuri and I had lost interest in the sex but the frequency had mellowed down and certainly it never lived up to the expectations I had from myself before marriage. As a single guy, I believed that I would be having sex every day of my life and never understood why some of the other married folks couldn't keep up their drive. Being married for couple of years made me understand that it takes quite a bit of energy to have sex and having it every night is Herculean effort, quite beyond most people's capabilities.
During that discussion, I came to understand that Mayuri and I were truly naïve in the sex department. My close friends had been far more adventurous and had tried quite a few esoteric positions and also experimented with quite a few toys that were easily accessible here. Mayuri and I on the other hand usually engaged in missionary style sex and occasionally engaged in doggy style sex. Besides that we didn't try anything adventurous till date, although oral sex was not uncommon between us.
It was inevitable that our discussion steered to forbidden topics in our community. As expected it was Shrini who started it by saying, "I think we should try swinging."
"Are you out of your mind," yelled Vinil. Pratik and I were a little bit relaxed but definitely not interested in the direction our discussion was heading.
"No I am not," Shrini replied very calmly and added, "I know quite a few of my American colleagues indulge in it and that's what keeps their marriages alive."
"It is not in our culture," retorted Vinil.
"Besides our wives would never agree to something that outrageous," he added thoughtfully.
"I am not worrying about the execution part yet. We need to be convinced that this is the right path before we worry about how to make things happen," said Shrini.
None of us could agree less.
"And it is not as if such things happen only here, I knew of a secret social network in Bombay that organized swapping events."
We were all ears as he continued, "Although outrageous group sex activities never happened there but wife swapping definitely happened."
"They ran a lottery scheme and only wealthy, screened couples were invited."
"The wives usually selected one of the keys from the pooled car keys and then she would be off with the owner of the car for a wild night feast of sex."
"India is not too far behind in these things."
"Anyway, we are all in the US, why should we care about the social taboos in India."
The seeds were sown. Only time would tell if they would bear fruit, I thought to myself. While I agreed with Shrini's point of view, I didn't quite see a reason why one would want to experiment with such a wild idea, given that it could have disastrous consequences. I was perfectly happy with my sex life and didn't see any particular reason to experiment. However, I had been into the marriage only for couple of years and hence didn't quite know how things would materialize in future. Shrini, Pratik, and Vinil were definitely in agreement on the loss of excitement in their marriage after all these years.
I wondered if any one from our group would find any person of opposite sex undesirable. At least, I found all the three women quiet attractive and would relish spending time with them in the bedroom. They were very different and unique in some sense. Sneha was the most voluptuous woman of the lot – her luscious lips almost inviting for a kiss and her pear shaped body was almost perfect example of Indian beauty on the healthier side. Rohini was the skinniest of the lot but she was quite attractive in her own way. Her height, almost 5' 6" was certainly an advantage and her smallish breasts with her cute smile definitely had an aura. Dolly was short and petite, except in the hip region, where she seemed to be a bit well endowed. She was the cutest of the lot. Mayuri was certainly the most beautiful women from our group but had slightly smaller breasts to my taste. I did work on them over the past 2 years to bring them to B+ cup size. Given her age, it was, perhaps, acceptable to have those smallish breasts. As women generally tend to put on a little bit of weight as they age. I always believed that women generally look their best in their 30s. That was perhaps one of the reasons I found Rohini attractive.
The guys on the other hand weren't all that handsome. Vinil was, perhaps, the best looking guy but then he was also the shortest. Even Dolly was slightly taller than him, although he would never admit that. Pratik was a typical Maharashtrian, slightly overweight but yet not undesirably so. Shrini was the skinniest and the tallest of the lot. Overall, one wouldn't rate him as a very attractive but he wasn't bad either. I was slightly dark skinned but I was the person with a very good physique and one who exercised regularly.
All of us moved in, where our wives had gathered together and were listening very intently to what Rohini was saying. Out of sheer inquisitiveness, I asked, "What are you folks talking about?"
Mayuri excitedly responded, "Rohini is talking about her thesis on polyamorous relationships in humans."
I was pretty stunned to hear that and could only ask further, "What about them?" Rohini elaborated, "Actually my thesis is to understand the roots of polyamorous relationships in humans and why such relationships came into existence."
"It is interesting to note that although polygamy is well understood by most Indians, it is not the only form of polyamory."
Sneha added, "And polyandry was also quite popular in some parts of India."
"Polyandry?" All four of us asked in disbelief. The only polyandry we ever heard was that in the Mahabharata age and only one specific case of Draupadi.
"Yes, some of the tribes in Tibet still practice polyandry and it is primarily for economic reasons."
"The amount of irrigable land is scarce and division of such fertile land amongst children reduces the amount available for each and consequently renders it useless."
"So, polyandry is almost an economic compulsion in Tibet and socially acceptable as well," explained Rohini.
"Apart from this, some of the people in Kerala and Bengal used to practice polyandry couple of centuries ago. Even today you could clearly see that they are primarily matriarchal societies," added Rohini.
Dolly excitedly chimed in, "I wonder how the husbands could identify their kids."
"And I always wondered how Draupadi allotted time slots to the Pandavas," blurted Mayuri. All of us could only have hearty laugh. But for Rohini it was a much more serious issue and we all looked towards her to get an expert opinion.
"Well, I don't know how Draupadi managed it but it is quite an issue of mutual understanding and the wife's consent."
"Most of the time, the wife sleeps with her husbands, usually not more than two, on alternate night basis," she explained.
"There is never an issue about whose kid it is, since they are their kids regardless of the actual genetic parentage," she elaborated.
"So, whose kid the wife bears is just a matter of luck, as all of them are having their due share from her."
"Well so much for economic compulsions," she exhaled.
"That explains the origins."
"But what about the revival of polyamory in the west these days?" asked Pratik.
"Well that is an entirely different issue and has no relation to economics or the social structure."
"It is something that I could never comprehend and I have rarely heard of such things lasting lifetime of a person."
"Usually, things fall apart as the mutual attraction decrease over a period of time and they never endeavor into more complex relationships involving children."
"Polyamory needs phenomenal amount of trust and faith to work in the long term."
"Moreover, making it publicly known causes other kind of social issues."
"What about swinging or spouse swapping," I asked only to get that glare from Mayuri and the other women.
"You can't compare swinging with polyamory," yelled Dolly.
"Well, he can," said Rohini surprising every one.
"More often than not, polyamory usually has a primary relationship that is superior to other relationships."
"Such as husband-wife relationship – that is the most important relationship and everything else is secondary."
"So, people usually have polyamorous relationships by having one or two people involved from outside in the relationship."
"It doesn't last for a long time but then that is by design."
"Swinging comes closest to this but then the sole purpose of swinging is just having sex."
"Having said that, people who are seriously into swinging, especially with the same set of people, do eventually develop polyamorous relationships."
"Yes, but all this happens only in the west," said Shrini almost dismissing the idea.
"No, it happens also in India but it is largely under covers," said Rohini.
Rohini had worked as a social worker in India till she moved to the US and had counseled quite a few disgruntled couples, who transgressed the borders of marriage once in a while.
"Indian women are not that adventurous enough for something like this," said Shrini, almost instigating the four women.
Dolly quickly retorted, "I think Indian men cannot handle it. That is the reason why we Indian women never entertain such thoughts."
It wasn't surprising to me to that our friendship had grown beyond societal norms. We were four childhood friends, who grew up together and managed to keep in touch with each other, even after our paths separated. Life in a small town, perhaps, has these advantages. Our elite 4-people group expanded to include our wives, as one by one each of my friends got married. With in a matter of couple of years all my friends had gotten married and we had three more adorable people in our group. At 27, I was still after my first love and wouldn't even consider taking the arranged marriage route, as my friends took.
As luck would have it, my friends moved to the United States in pursuit of a bright future and liberal lifestyle. I was still stuck in India, hoping that Mayuri would eventually accept my proposal. I already had couple of job offers from US companies but didn't take them up since I believed that it was only a matter of time before Mayuri accepted my proposal. My friends on the other hand wouldn't understand what was keeping me back. They never gave me a chance with this dove-eyed beauty. So, naturally they were shocked to hear the news of my marriage with Mayuri.
Of all the people, Shrini was very unhappy that I never shared this secret with him. He helped me communicate my feelings to Mayuri back in college when I lacked self belief. I met Mayuri during the final year of my undergraduate studies. She was 6 years junior to us and had just joined the 11th grade class in our junior college. No sooner did she join, word about her beauty started circulating among boys in our college. I still remember - a bunch of folks from our group had made a beeline outside her classroom, just to get a glimpse of her beauty. Although, she was just in her 11th grade, she could put to shame any of the grown up girls with the kind of body she possessed. Being a Kokanastha (Maharashtrian s from coastal part) it was not surprising that she was gifted with a flawless, fair complexion. She was around 5'4", slightly above average height by Indian standards. Her eyes and her lips were her striking features. She had awesome figure - she was neither skinny nor fat but just perfect. It wasn't surprising that there were lots of guys eyeing her and even proposed to her on rose day. Getting introduced to her was very easy for me. I was the college topper all the years and was expected to score very highly in the final year exams as well. However, carrying a meaningful conversation with her was always difficult for me as I would get distracted time and again by her stunning beauty. In no time she knew that I had a crush on her and so did my friends learn about that.
I still didn't have courage to even ask her out, forget about sharing my feelings with her. Fortunately, my friends came to rescue me there. Realizing that I wouldn't be able to muster courage to confront her with my feelings for her, they sent her twenty-five red roses to her on rose day, on my behalf. I was stunned when I came to know about this. I did meet Mayuri several times after that but we never discussed about this. Later I came to know that she thought that I had sent her the roses and that it was just to communicate her about my feelings for her. While she liked my company, she was more interested in her studies at that point in time and hence she never entertained that idea beyond that point. I, however, managed to make good friends with her even after I moved out of college and we regularly kept in touch. My friends were still unaware of this, though. Shrini was with me in the college and was one of the persons who had engineered the rose day proposal. Given this background, he was understandably very pissed with the news. He, at least, expected me to share this secret with him.
I had to pacify him on the phone for a while before he forgave me for holding onto my little secret but only on the condition that I share with him the gory details of our honeymoon. This was something that I should have expected from him. Shrini & Pratik were downright obnoxious at times and recklessly sharing the gory details of their sex life with us. Shrini and Pratik both regarded Mayuri to be very beautiful and would have pursued her if she had been an easy catch. However, they never left an opportunity of talking dirty about any of the attractive females in our group. In particular, both of them enjoyed sharing their fantasies of boning Mayuri, if only they got a chance. Although, they knew I had a crush on her they never really thought I was very serious about her. I was a bit concerned with all the guy talk we had back then when we quite didn't know how things would pan out in the future.
I am digressing here, though. The reason I kept the little secret from everyone was perhaps only to protect my male ego. None of my friends ever thought that I could even woo Mayuri, forget about getting married to her. She was by caste, and a very beautiful girl at that. On the other hand, I was a South Indian, not a and was considerably dark skinned than her. I came to know from a close friend of her that her family was against the idea of Mayuri getting married outside her caste. They definitely didn't want her to get married to a dark skinned guy like me. That's the reason, I was not too optimistic but I didn't stop persisting though. It was only after one of her elder cousins eloped with a guy next door that they were forced to seriously think about Mayuri's future. It seemed Mayuri was very keen on getting married to me but her parents were adamant about not having a South Indian for their son-in-law. Mayuri was in her final year and she had already gotten admission into an US university for her further studies. I too had received my H1B but was deliberately delaying traveling to the US. It didn't take much time after her cousin fled for Mayuri's parents to realize that I was perhaps a much better choice than either a or a for that matter. The fact that Mayuri was just 20 didn't matter and on an auspicious day in the month of February 1997 we got married.
So, finally I got married to the woman of my dreams, or rather a girl of my dreams. We didn't have a very long honeymoon, just a week at the nearest hill station, Matheran. And no I didn't bother sharing the gory details with Shrini or Pratik. In fact, I pretty much avoided contact with them the next couple of months until I finally relocated to the US.
I found a consulting job in one of the high-tech companies in the Silicon Valley and Mayuri joined me a few months later, just before her college started. Mayuri was exceptionally ambitious and it surprised most people to see her get married at such a young age. While, most of our batch mates were enjoying our summer vacations by doing nothing, she was working with her Dad, helping him in his business and understanding the intricacies of Architecture. I had no doubt in my mind that we wouldn't step into the family way before she is into her thirties. It was her hard work and practical knowledge she gained while working with her Dad that enabled her to secure admission into this prestigious college.
Very soon, she was an integral part of our group. Now, our entire elite group was in the US within a 600 mile radius with us being almost at the center. Shrini and Rohini were located in the north near Davis. Pratik and Sneha were located in Fresno, most unlikely area for a software engineer. Vinil and Dolly were located in Los Angeles area. It was very difficult for all of us to meet on a weekly basis, but we made it a point to meet on a monthly basis, at least. And most of the time the meeting was at our place. With frequent meetings, Shrini and Pratik got more of an opportunity to flirt with Mayuri. Mayuri, though, very adroitly handled their lecherous glances and advances. Having exposed to dealing with people in construction business, she knew how to conduct herself among men. I had no doubt that Shrini and Pratik envied me for having such a beautiful wife.
Everything went as it should between friends until the Memorial Day weekend of 1999. Mayuri had just finished her exams and her final project presentation. We had decided to relax at home instead of using the long weekend for sight seeing. All our friends decided to spend the weekend at our place as well. We were outside on the patio having a few drinks and our discussion turned to sex. Shrini was the first one to broach up the topic.
"I have been having sex almost twice a day ever since I got married!" we heard Shrini claim very proudly.
"Really?" I asked eagerly.
"Well it has slowed down these days. Especially the last two years things have mellowed down significantly."
"I guess, that's normal after being married for six years," he added to justify.
Pratik chimed in, "I totally agree!"
"Four years of marriage has had a similar effect on me as well."
Vinil corroborated Shrini and Pratik by saying, "Sex is not everything!"
"Sooner or later there are other aspects of marriage that become more important or pertinent."
And then it was my turn to give my 2 cents.
"Well, I too did it twice in the first six months or so but recently it has been mostly once a day."
Mayuri's studies had significantly curtailed our bedroom encounters, since her course load was very demanding and she was very adamant of finishing it in two years.
"Moreover my consulting job makes it very difficult since I have to travel on a regular basis," I added justifying our low frequency given our fairly new marriage.
"I don't agree with you Vinil," Shrini countered Vinil.
"Other things start becoming more only important after you have kids."
"And none of us have kids yet," he clarified.
"So what are you saying?" asked Pratik.
Shrini looked at our blank expressions and said, "Have you heard the phrase 'Familiarity breeds contempt'"
"Or the phrase 'Variety is the spice of life''" he asked.
"What exactly are you saying," I asked since it seemed too much of a loaded statement to me.
"Well, all I am saying is that we are bored with our mundane life and we need some excitement," Shrini said calmly.
"I agree," both Pratik and Vinil chimed in.
"We need some excitement before we get into the rut of life and have kids," Pratik added.
The more we dwelled on this topic, the more we talked about our mutual experiences and ended up concluding that we needed a little bit of excitement in our life to spike the lost interest in the sex department. Although, I didn't believe Mayuri and I had lost interest in the sex but the frequency had mellowed down and certainly it never lived up to the expectations I had from myself before marriage. As a single guy, I believed that I would be having sex every day of my life and never understood why some of the other married folks couldn't keep up their drive. Being married for couple of years made me understand that it takes quite a bit of energy to have sex and having it every night is Herculean effort, quite beyond most people's capabilities.
During that discussion, I came to understand that Mayuri and I were truly naïve in the sex department. My close friends had been far more adventurous and had tried quite a few esoteric positions and also experimented with quite a few toys that were easily accessible here. Mayuri and I on the other hand usually engaged in missionary style sex and occasionally engaged in doggy style sex. Besides that we didn't try anything adventurous till date, although oral sex was not uncommon between us.
It was inevitable that our discussion steered to forbidden topics in our community. As expected it was Shrini who started it by saying, "I think we should try swinging."
"Are you out of your mind," yelled Vinil. Pratik and I were a little bit relaxed but definitely not interested in the direction our discussion was heading.
"No I am not," Shrini replied very calmly and added, "I know quite a few of my American colleagues indulge in it and that's what keeps their marriages alive."
"It is not in our culture," retorted Vinil.
"Besides our wives would never agree to something that outrageous," he added thoughtfully.
"I am not worrying about the execution part yet. We need to be convinced that this is the right path before we worry about how to make things happen," said Shrini.
None of us could agree less.
"And it is not as if such things happen only here, I knew of a secret social network in Bombay that organized swapping events."
We were all ears as he continued, "Although outrageous group sex activities never happened there but wife swapping definitely happened."
"They ran a lottery scheme and only wealthy, screened couples were invited."
"The wives usually selected one of the keys from the pooled car keys and then she would be off with the owner of the car for a wild night feast of sex."
"India is not too far behind in these things."
"Anyway, we are all in the US, why should we care about the social taboos in India."
The seeds were sown. Only time would tell if they would bear fruit, I thought to myself. While I agreed with Shrini's point of view, I didn't quite see a reason why one would want to experiment with such a wild idea, given that it could have disastrous consequences. I was perfectly happy with my sex life and didn't see any particular reason to experiment. However, I had been into the marriage only for couple of years and hence didn't quite know how things would materialize in future. Shrini, Pratik, and Vinil were definitely in agreement on the loss of excitement in their marriage after all these years.
I wondered if any one from our group would find any person of opposite sex undesirable. At least, I found all the three women quiet attractive and would relish spending time with them in the bedroom. They were very different and unique in some sense. Sneha was the most voluptuous woman of the lot – her luscious lips almost inviting for a kiss and her pear shaped body was almost perfect example of Indian beauty on the healthier side. Rohini was the skinniest of the lot but she was quite attractive in her own way. Her height, almost 5' 6" was certainly an advantage and her smallish breasts with her cute smile definitely had an aura. Dolly was short and petite, except in the hip region, where she seemed to be a bit well endowed. She was the cutest of the lot. Mayuri was certainly the most beautiful women from our group but had slightly smaller breasts to my taste. I did work on them over the past 2 years to bring them to B+ cup size. Given her age, it was, perhaps, acceptable to have those smallish breasts. As women generally tend to put on a little bit of weight as they age. I always believed that women generally look their best in their 30s. That was perhaps one of the reasons I found Rohini attractive.
The guys on the other hand weren't all that handsome. Vinil was, perhaps, the best looking guy but then he was also the shortest. Even Dolly was slightly taller than him, although he would never admit that. Pratik was a typical Maharashtrian, slightly overweight but yet not undesirably so. Shrini was the skinniest and the tallest of the lot. Overall, one wouldn't rate him as a very attractive but he wasn't bad either. I was slightly dark skinned but I was the person with a very good physique and one who exercised regularly.
All of us moved in, where our wives had gathered together and were listening very intently to what Rohini was saying. Out of sheer inquisitiveness, I asked, "What are you folks talking about?"
Mayuri excitedly responded, "Rohini is talking about her thesis on polyamorous relationships in humans."
I was pretty stunned to hear that and could only ask further, "What about them?" Rohini elaborated, "Actually my thesis is to understand the roots of polyamorous relationships in humans and why such relationships came into existence."
"It is interesting to note that although polygamy is well understood by most Indians, it is not the only form of polyamory."
Sneha added, "And polyandry was also quite popular in some parts of India."
"Polyandry?" All four of us asked in disbelief. The only polyandry we ever heard was that in the Mahabharata age and only one specific case of Draupadi.
"Yes, some of the tribes in Tibet still practice polyandry and it is primarily for economic reasons."
"The amount of irrigable land is scarce and division of such fertile land amongst children reduces the amount available for each and consequently renders it useless."
"So, polyandry is almost an economic compulsion in Tibet and socially acceptable as well," explained Rohini.
"Apart from this, some of the people in Kerala and Bengal used to practice polyandry couple of centuries ago. Even today you could clearly see that they are primarily matriarchal societies," added Rohini.
Dolly excitedly chimed in, "I wonder how the husbands could identify their kids."
"And I always wondered how Draupadi allotted time slots to the Pandavas," blurted Mayuri. All of us could only have hearty laugh. But for Rohini it was a much more serious issue and we all looked towards her to get an expert opinion.
"Well, I don't know how Draupadi managed it but it is quite an issue of mutual understanding and the wife's consent."
"Most of the time, the wife sleeps with her husbands, usually not more than two, on alternate night basis," she explained.
"There is never an issue about whose kid it is, since they are their kids regardless of the actual genetic parentage," she elaborated.
"So, whose kid the wife bears is just a matter of luck, as all of them are having their due share from her."
"Well so much for economic compulsions," she exhaled.
"That explains the origins."
"But what about the revival of polyamory in the west these days?" asked Pratik.
"Well that is an entirely different issue and has no relation to economics or the social structure."
"It is something that I could never comprehend and I have rarely heard of such things lasting lifetime of a person."
"Usually, things fall apart as the mutual attraction decrease over a period of time and they never endeavor into more complex relationships involving children."
"Polyamory needs phenomenal amount of trust and faith to work in the long term."
"Moreover, making it publicly known causes other kind of social issues."
"What about swinging or spouse swapping," I asked only to get that glare from Mayuri and the other women.
"You can't compare swinging with polyamory," yelled Dolly.
"Well, he can," said Rohini surprising every one.
"More often than not, polyamory usually has a primary relationship that is superior to other relationships."
"Such as husband-wife relationship – that is the most important relationship and everything else is secondary."
"So, people usually have polyamorous relationships by having one or two people involved from outside in the relationship."
"It doesn't last for a long time but then that is by design."
"Swinging comes closest to this but then the sole purpose of swinging is just having sex."
"Having said that, people who are seriously into swinging, especially with the same set of people, do eventually develop polyamorous relationships."
"Yes, but all this happens only in the west," said Shrini almost dismissing the idea.
"No, it happens also in India but it is largely under covers," said Rohini.
Rohini had worked as a social worker in India till she moved to the US and had counseled quite a few disgruntled couples, who transgressed the borders of marriage once in a while.
"Indian women are not that adventurous enough for something like this," said Shrini, almost instigating the four women.
Dolly quickly retorted, "I think Indian men cannot handle it. That is the reason why we Indian women never entertain such thoughts."
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