“And God said let there be light & there was light” the spectacled, unbelievably huge, Mr. Khanna said in his signature style and the entire class erupted into a burst of laughter. This was
9th grade Nitin was a normal DPS boy, no different from the rest of them, having an appetite for a 90% mark on his report card. The days sessions concluded, bags were packed; it was time to head home. It was the peak hour at the boy’s toilet with the sight of the passing girls ruling their hormones, a testimony of the enormous masculinity that ruled their minds.
Nitin had to pass through a whole lot of streets before he reached home. Colorful cleavage filled posters of adult movies flashing across the walls of Paharganj seemed to scream at Nitin expecting a glare from him. He tried to look away from them but
Disgusted, he ran.
He passed through another street which his dad had referred to as the “Kaali Sadak” or simply the dark road. He was forbidden from taking that path to get home. Nitin never asked ‘why’. But today he was there, on the Kaali Sadak, on the dark road. He moved ahead looking at the road; he found cylindrical shaped synthetics called condoms. He saw women of all ages on the sides sitting on what seemed like display benches. Most of them were wearing sarees in a crumpled state, covering lesser of their body than it was designed to. Their hair style complimented their attire. All those lips which were painted in the color of love or in this instance the color of lust addressed the passers by as “Raja”. Nitin! Nitin!! My name is Nitin he wanted to scream like his throat was bleeding. There were sixteen cleavages to his left.
“Ek ghante ka do sau rupaya, condom ke alag se lagenge raja! sirf upar ka choona hai to… ”
Nitin ran like there was a train on his track, as fast as he could. Someone caught his attention, he slowed down. He wanted to see who it was, he turned around and saw a woman, adjusting her blouse. Aged somewhere around 30 -35, her face bore the an expression of surprise, thanks to the running incident. He now ran faster. Again, he saw a woman aged around 30-35 standing at his door. “Namaste Maa!” were the only words he could gather out , he locked himself in his room and forced himself to sleep.
The Next Day.
“Human reproduction is any form of sexual reproduction resulting in the conception of a child, typically involving sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. During sexual intercourse, the interaction between the male reproductive system and the female reproductive system results in fertilization of the woman's ovum by the man's sperm, which after a gestation period is followed by childbirth. The fertilization of the ovum may nowadays be achieved by artificial insemination methods, which do not involve sexual intercourse.”
Mr. Shastry showed a picture of a woman with her reproductive system open. Nitin watched all of it carefully and asked his neighbour “What age could she be, Rohan?”
“Ha ha, kyon yaar? She must be around 30 -35. Women are usually pregnant at that age.”
“Oh, ok”.
Nitin saw the cleavage of the woman in the picture, moments of him running back home and the lady in the Kaali Sadak flashed back at lighting speed. He closed his eyes, it was dark. He realized why it was called the dark road or what the grown up world had referred to as the Kaali Sadak.
The bell rang, interrupting Nitin’s thoughts. He didn’t quite like this particular thought which made him sink deeper into this new mysterious world which was still a taboo. He began comparing himself with the white silky salwar kameez clad men whose red lips smelt of greed and slightly turned cap spoke of their unending thirst for sex. His mind traveled through the darkest corners of the not so spoken about corrupt mind of men. When he flipped through his science text book to study, the ‘reproductive system chapter’ highlighted itself over all the other processes of the human body, he shut it close. Lying on his bed he thought if this was why, thousands of wars were fought, innumerable movies made, a treasure of songs written, and a million gallons of sap sucked out of the ‘Hevea brasiliensis’.
The images that had ruled his mind and thoughts in the past few days had been kept away; thanks to the monthly tests that kept Nitin busy, also that none of the questions from the reproductive chapter had appeared in the test.
His eyes expected and more impatiently needed to see that ‘cleavage’. It’s true, when you want something; all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. The day the tests concluded, Nitin’s mind controlled the path he was going to chose to get home. He took the street on the left then a right and left again to lead him straight into Paharganj. The actress on the posters of the adult movie seemed to have had a lot of men’s piddle on her and pan spat on her face to add to the loud make up. The part of the poster that showed her cleavage had been torn by some desperate man who could not satisfy his thirst by just looking at it. Disappointed, and ashamed at the same time, Nitin cursed everybody around. He almost got hit by a bicycle when he walked on the road with a mind which now was an ocean of lust. All that Nitin cared at that time was the sight of the next poster where he could see what his eyes craved for. What exactly did his eyes crave for and why did they crave for it ?? were the questions he asked himself. He thought about it till his eyes celebrated the sight of a poster that was intact.
No scientific questions crossed his mind, no other thought even reached the surface of his thoughts. Of the four main goals of life followed by Indian philosophies (Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha),
He remembered the lady he had stopped to look at, he knew that she was going to be his key to this world which fascinated him more than the world of Einstein. He raced towards the Kaali Sadak, at a pace that defined his thirst. With his shirt sticking out, tie loosened and hair undone Nitin walked into the place where desires met destinations, thirst met satisfaction and “the masculine” met “the effeminate”. As he walked through the street of Kaali Sadak he looked at those houses more anxiously today, he looked beyond blouses and crumpled sarees of the women. He gazed at the colors of the wall, the fake stones, the ancient Indian monument of a man and woman in a compromising position, a phrase he had picked from one of the sex scandals that was published in the newspaper.
“Eh raja” a voice called out and next thing he knew was that she was pulling his hands. He was in a state of shock. Was it someone he knew? A relative? He froze his thoughts, gathered some courage and looked back, it was her. The 3 dimensional imagination of the 2 dimensional woman of his text book. It was the touch of a person he “knew”.
He smiled at her, she didn’t return it. He realized she was still holding his hand. An uncomfortable silence followed. Huge waves of embarrassment made their way into Nitin s heart as he slowly tried to take his hand away from the woman’s clutches. She was reluctant to let go of his hands, as if she expected the same from him, a ray of hope for a hand of friendship and not just one which could provide the dime that would make her treasure heavier. A 15 year old kid and a woman who has been a machine that is expected to make love to a thousand hungry men. Could they be friends? She finally let go of his hands with a faint smile that was going to haunt him in the days to come.
Today the scene of a 15 year old boy and a prostitute holding hands on Kaali Sadak, the dark street, attracted more attention than usual.
p.s.: Special thanks to Shwetha Nairy for her valuable inputs and editing.
