Malaai (English translation)

                      MALAAI(cream)

Translated by Sanket shanware                                                                                                       written by Anant Gaur

 

I haven’t talked about this before, not even to the closest of my friends. Truth is, not even to myself in a long while and I don’t know why but I have a strong feeling that if this story reaches them, there’d be a series of different kinds footwear waiting for my ‘welcome’. This tale goes back to the times when I was in my second year of college and like every fresh young man I would wander here and there posting my qualifications for a partner. As in every other college there are only a handful of girls whose talks, gossips and stories interests everyone on the campus, similarly we also had a sparse amount of them and the most fascinating amongst them was 'Malaayi'. The girl who was the center of attraction for all the male population. The simple reason of calling her by this name was that, when me and my closest buddy had seen her for the very first time the words that popped out  from his mouth were, “oh bhaisaab... Ye to malaayi hai yaar" (Oh brother.... she is like cream man), and hence this name. Actually both of us were sipping tea on the nearby tea stall when I spotted this goddess walking towards us, her skin was white as milk; so soft she seemed that blood might drop off if you touch her with even a finger. Malaayi with her long hair, sharp facial features and a beautiful body had another very exciting thing about her. Her chirpiness, which made people go mad over her all the more. Malaayi was the kind of girl which every guy would want as his wife; who was a delight to love to and who could be taken home to the parents to meet. But I wasn’t among those guys.

It was obviously not that her style, her actions, her words, her smile, her fragrance didn’t enchant me, but in life of every man there's a girl or two, whom he looks with a different eye. I saw Malaayi with those very eyes; the eyes of lust. And these eyes stalked everything about her; her long hair, those tender hands, her stunning walk, her amateur breasts, her blood red rosy lips and that soothing smile flowing from them. Apart from her name and her chirpy nature, I didn’t know anything about her and as far as I know, she also had the similar amount of knowledge about me. For each other We were just another girl-boy in the college and that’s all. Our sole chat was when in the first year she just bumped into me with that soft little heel of hers and instantly looked back saying, “Oh! I am really sorry”. Oh, those enviable eyes with which all the other guys watched me and most of them being my mates. Rascals.

The informers of the college had spread the word that she had a boyfriend who was studying abroad and maybe this was also a reason as to why unlike the others I wasn’t desperate to get her, because I knew that I simply had no chance at all.

The third and the fourth foyer of our college building were usually empty and that is why I kept visiting them frequently. I would sit there for hours having an aerial view of the crowd below and would create weird fictitious stories about them. So as I was telling that it was the second year of the college and I was indulged in my alone walks, when i saw a girl sitting on the stairs besides the wall near the washrooms while I was coming down from the fourth floor. She was Malaayi. Although she had her face covered with her hands but after watching that curvaceous body for so long I had got so acquainted to it that I easily recognized who it was without actually seeing her face. She was sad, her tears and the soft sobbing justified it. At first I gradually started walking away from there, but deep inside I felt bad for her. Witnessing such a beautiful face cry would melt anyone’s heart, and my opportunist brain was constantly repeating, “This is the moment.” I went back to her and asked, “Excuse me, you all right?”. She was startled by my presence and amidst wiping her tears she said, “Yes I am fine. Thanks. You go please.”

“Hmm… see I had almost left but I couldn’t keep myselves from coming back. Something didn't allow me leaving you in such a state, that’s why I had come back to solve your problem” I said.

“No you can’t, so just leave me alone.”

For some time we just sat there in silence, after a while I placed my hand around her shoulder and said, ”everything's fine”. As soon I spake these words out Malaayi hugged me tightly and started to weep badly. Suddenly, my body started to experience some kind of tickling all over; her chest was pressed against mine, it felt as if I was receiving mild electric shocks; as if my hands had got brains of their own to work upon, they longed to run over her soft skin in a Brownian motion; they involuntarily moved towards her breasts but stopped abruptly. I was desperately trying to avoid anything like this so I also hugged her equally tightly and said, “Dark circles appear due to such intense crying madam. Men are all distrustful". She started to cry all the more crazily after this. Then for some time this melodrama of tears continued. I would say something, and her cries skyrocketed consistently. Finally when I said, “You are so lovely, I wouldn’t have done that ever!". Today also, I bless that moment when I had uttered these ‘priceless’ words out of my mouth. Suddenly out of nowhere, Malaayi brought her face in the closest proximity of mine and started to kiss me. Her lips were soft like a cloud made up of cotton, her wet mouth and my hands on her snow-white waist. aah! Those strands of hair coming down on her face. If ever there was a limit to stop myself then surely that must be it. For a moment I thought, what was she actually doing? should I stop her or what? But I couldn’t gather the strength and I did not have the audacity to stop such a heavenly exposure! 10 minutes after this kissing delight Malaayi suddenly stood up and ran away from there. And I, lost for eternity in that divine experience, sat there for hours, smiling, looking at the way she went. To sleep that night had become an uphill task for me and only I and my awakened night knows about it.

Even after intensely searching for her I couldn’t find her for the next two days in the college. The third day after was a Sunday. On Monday when I entered the canteen during the lunch break I found her sitting with her friends in one of the corners. So I went there and asked her, “Oi! madam how are you? And where did you disappear?” She looked at me, smiled, and with a tinge of loveliness, she said, “Hey” and with the same love she ignored my next six-seven lines. After some time she started to leave. I quickly went after, held her hand and very casually asked, ”Hey what happened?”  What happened afterwards, I might never forget in my life. She turned around and in front of some fifty people slapped me, and I couldn’t do anything. “Why are you disturbing me!” said she, and went away from there. Every eye present there stared at me, for many days, months and years. That one moment made me realize that there is one thing in the world even stronger than love. Hatred.

 

It's been eight years since I graduated college and way before that I had already got the idea that my degree was never going to be useful.  Now I had become a writer, and after writing three famous books I was not wrong in saying that I had received all the kinds of juices from my life. Presently, life was engulfed with ideas of books, fan mails, meetings with the publishers and promotions of the already written books. I had visited almost the entire country and four-five other nations as well. One day I was busy on my computer chatting with some of my well-wishers on my new book when I received a message in my inbox. It was Malaayi's message; just one simple “hey!” which had refreshed all the memories in a blink of an eye, the things which I had somehow forgotten. After some seven hours when I couldn’t further control and my heart said that there is nothing left in things of the past, I replied to her text. “Quite busy” said she. Then after all the formal talks and knowing about each other’s whereabouts we said goodbye that night. The next day when I woke up, a text message was already waiting for me, in which Malaayi had apologized for the events that had happened in that canteen. In reply I said, ”If I forgive you right now then how would i be able to again witness the Damsel you are looking right now.” And she replied with a smiley. Maybe she had an idea but I still felt it was mandatory to tell her that they were few lines from one of my books and correctly As I was thinking she knew it already. We didn’t talk for a few days but then suddenly her message arrived, ”just read your new book, it's awesome. Have fallen in love with the characters. Wanna meet up for coffee and tell me more about them.”

“Of course! When?” said I.

In the next two days we met at a restaurant. Malaayi who already was gorgeous had become all the more fascinating; even today all the male heads turned around to see her pass by in amazement. The only difference was that now she wasn’t a growing young girl but a woman with a well-toned and matured body. But one thing had not changed at all, her chirpiness. In the midst of our discussion of my books and other conversation, she once again apologized for that day. After that, a series of meetings set off in such a way that we started to meet alternatively and talked on phone for hours daily. Encountering my massive fan-following she used to be startled all the time. Maybe this was also one of the reasons as to why she had 'given away her heart to me' and yes she had confessed about this to me. Then came the day when she called me to her place.

In spite of being an lone independent woman she had built a beautiful house, but she had become completely alone in her life. And maybe that’s why she was in search of a support. And may be that’s why she had a dog.

I am not very fond of dogs though; that day when I stepped in her house he started to bark at me madly. Though she had tied up that dog at one corner in the drawing room but it took around forty five minutes for him to calm down. We were sitting on her bed, watching some old photographs  when from nowhere she came closer and planted her sumptuous lips on me, the same way as she had done on those college stairs. One by one she took off all her clothes; I realized that maybe loneliness was the reason that she needed someone who could satisfy all her desires, and that is precisely why she couldn’t resist herself. I hadn’t seen a woman so desperate for sex, or maybe as people say that making out with a writer is every woman’s fantasy. Witnessing that sumptuous figure with an illuminating presence, anyone would give up and get lost in it, and since college days I wanted exactly this.

 

I started to kiss her frantically, and I engaged in this heavenly experience until my lips dried up due to tiredness. Soon, both of us were naked and as is said in a way of speaking, Malaayi was on “top of the world”. I was aware that saying or doing anything wrong would be fatal for her. Maybe I wanted precisely this, maybe I was waiting for this moment.

I got up and wore my pants, and started to wear the rest of my clothes. Then she asked with a look of scared confusion, ”What happened, why did you stop? ”She tried to pull me towards her, "what happened” she asked again, this time with more aggression.

“This is the answer to that humiliation you gave me in the canteen.”

As if all the blood gushed out of her face on hearing this, and it was clearly visible.

"I am sorry. I said sorry. please don't do this to me. Please."

She pleaded, cried, then shouted as well, crazily started to throw things all over the house. But I was adamant not to stop. All of this was developing in my soul waiting to burst out on moment like this. May be I was no more in search of love but vengeance. When I stepped out of her room then also she kept on shouting helplessly; her words grew filthier and her dog started to bark at me without any avail. I came out of her house, their voices gradually started to fade. As my pace increased.

That day, for the second time I realized that there is one thing in the world even stronger than love. Hatred.

Anant.