Waiting for the arrival of the Rayalaseema Express at Nampally that morning, Sathyam felt that only on Roopa's return would the hidden treasure acquire its true value for its possession. As the train chugged into the railway station, he sighted Roopa, leaning out to wave at him, and seeing her alight, radiating in that pearl chain, his own mood was further buoyed.
"You look great," said Sathyam to Roopa, having greeted them all.
"It's a surprise from Sandhya," said Roopa fondling her pearls chain.
"How this goes with me?" said Sandhya showing him her coral necklace.
"Anything suits you," said Sathyam, helping them in moving the luggage.
"Thank you," said Sandhya.
"How's the trip?" said Sathyam to Raja Rao.
"Had you come, it would've been different," said Raja Rao.
"But the Lord had other ideas for me," said Sathyam.
Once out of the station, they hired a cab to reach their homes.
As he took Roopa into his arms that night, Sathyam couldn't take his eyes off her pearl chain.
'Why it didn't strike me that pearls go so well with you," he said a little disappointed.
"Being a face-man, you thought about the nose-stud," she said alluringly, and thought adoringly, 'But Raja, oh! Won't he turn my face and frame into one? What a time we've had!'
'Soon I'll make you a queen with the crown and all," said Sathyam, fondling her affectionately,
"I'll await the coronation," she said in smile, but felt at the same time, 'Am I not already an empress of love on a double throne.'
On the other hand, in that middle-class home with millions in the loft, Sathyam felt that he was in a trisankhu swargam. Though his net worth was enough to make people line up at his doorstep, he felt that he had to run the errands for the IAS cadre. He was disgusted that though he had the means to let Roopa go around in a chauffeur driven Chevrolet, he was unable to offer her any more than a pillion ride on his Lambretta. In his frustration, he often thought of quitting the service, but the temptation to keep it going for some more time, ensured that it was status quo at his office, and home as well.
Then came Saroja's first birthday, and Roopa's proposal to add Tara to their family guest list, seconded by Sandhya, was welcomed by Raja Rao.
"I feel flattered to be favoured," said Tara to Roopa.
"It's no favour and you're not invited alone," said Roopa.
"I'll surely come and you understand the rest," said Tara
"Is it not some price to pay my friend," said Roopa taking Tara's hand.
"As I keep telling you, life is like that my dear," said Tara hugging Roopa.
"I love you for that," said Roopa enlacing Tara.
Sathyam for his part couldn't resist the temptation to present her a gold necklace befitting his intrinsic worth and his innate affection for Sandhya, and on the way to the birthday party at her place, he found himself in contemplation,
'Sandhya would surely like my present for her daughter. What a sweet nature she has. Oh, how she understands people and empathizes with them. And what warmth she has for people in general. What a rare woman, indeed. Wouldn't I've been better off had she been my wife, instead of a rakhi sister? But then, Raja Rao would've been a better husband for Roopa. How she admires him? He's nothing short of an idol for her, is he not? And it's quite possible that she's enamored of him, and oh, how she clings to him. But how can I fault her, even if she were in love with him? Isn't he a better man than me in every way? Why, it's so apparent. But would her infatuation push her into a liaison with him? Oh, no, after all that, how unfair of me to even to entertain such a thought? Why, didn't she shun Prasad, that too when she was indifferent to me? By snubbing Prasad, hadn't she showed her character, once and for all? What's more, she even says that she loves me, and I too can feel her newfound affection, don't I? Maybe, she even fantasizes about Raja Rao, but that's a different matter altogether."
When he reached their place, it was Roopa who received him, and he lost no time in placing the necklace on Saroja's person.
"I envy my daughter's luck at having an uncle who treats her like a daughter," said Sandhya, thrilled at his gesture.
'I've always thought that we're all but one family," said Sathyam, feeling pleased.
As Roopa began to dress Saroja in a plain cotton frock though, Sathyam said it may not be right for the big occasion.
"Though kids are better off in cottons, sadly for them, parents tend to exhibit them in suffocating synthetics," she said.
'It's a fine drawing-room talk but the world regards one for his dress," said Sathyam.
'Dress may add but it's the poise that pleases," said Roopa.
"Left to you, you would make a sanyasin out of Saroja," said Sathyam unable to reconcile to her philosophy of life. "Anyway, I'll show Saroja the other side of the coin?"
"Sathyamgaru, I'll assist you in your endeavour," said Tara who by then joined them.
"You both are welcome to do that,' said Raja Rao who joined them by then. "But personally, I like to be guided by the twin quotes that our family physician
Dr. Ramachandra Rao, religiously transfers to his new diary. Somehow that slipped from my mind when we were on the subject at the Eagle Bar that day. Let me quote them - In bringing up children, parents should remember that not wealth, but education conduces most to their happiness, and the other is - The best inheritance that a father can provide to his son is an education that will fit him to take an honorable place among the cultured men."
"I appreciate your intellect, though I differ with some of your ideas, but I do envy your experience without any reservation whatever," said Sathyam extending his hand to Raja Rao.
"Thank you for your compliment," said Raja Rao. "Intellect is the ability to analyse human condition and experience is the outcome of self-introspection. But people tend to attribute their failures to outside factors without reflecting upon their own contributions to the setbacks. That's why we find many inexperienced oldies and a few experienced youths. All said and done, I feel you've an intellectual heart."
"Oh, you've touched my heart," said Sathyam patting Raja Rao.
"Congratulations for forming a new Mutual Admiration Club," said Roopa.
"You're welcome to join if you please," said Raja Rao.
"Why do you leave me out," said Tara smilingly.
"How can I, you're doubly welcome," said Raja Rao.
"Shall I thank him on your behalf Tara," said Roopa smilingly.
"You make me dumb," said Tara taking Roopa's hand.
Soon, the other invitees began to arrive with their kids, and in time, the place was all agog with excitement. At length, as it was time for high tea, announced Sandhya,
"Pray it's palatable and pick up your plates."
-----
For the first anniversary of Integral Architects, that came close on the heels of Saroja's birthday, Raja Rao thought of making it low key at his office and an extended affair at the Blue Fox in the evening.
Thus, after performing the customary vighneswara puja that morning, and having handed over the mandatory mementoes to Aslam and Narasaiah, Raja Rao called it a day at the office, wanting them to join for the dinner party at the Blue Fox in the evening with their families.
Soon they reached home, and Sandhya, as was her wont, sent Saroja with the ayah to Lalitha's place, so finding themselves all alone with their man, as the mates looked at him admiringly, he folded them together with his 'I love you' and asked them to pick up their diamond ear-studs from his hands.
"Fascinating," said Sandhya excitedly.
"Radiant," reflected Roopa reflexively.
"Like you two," he said as they went about unscrewing their gold studs.
'Oh, how he used to pronounce 'two' as 'too' to seduce me!" said Roopa to Sandhya.
"Had I got a wink of it, my honeymoon would've been our orgymoon," said Sandhya.
"That would've saved me all that misery," said Roopa reminiscently, as she tried to position the diamond ear-studs all by herself.
"But it made that night so poignant," said Raja Rao, stopping her from changing the ear studs.
"Ordeals do throw up rewards in the end," said Roopa.
"Oh, how I wish I'd seen that scene," said Sandhya.
"Now for a romantic touch to our dalliance, let's adorn the First Lady," he said, and took the pair from Sandhya's hand, and gave one to Roopa.
"It's just love," said Sandhya, as her man and her mate were at work on her ears.
"Are you not our love," they said, biting the respective ear.
"Oh, you look wonderful, look into the mirror," said Roopa to Sandhya.
"I grasp that from the glow of your faces," said Sandhya, embracing them both.
When he invited Sandhya for a repeat performance on their lover, Roopa said mischievously to Raja Rao,
"You leave the right one to her, as she has the first right on me."
"Roopa, how your face glows in the diamond triangle," said Raja Rao seeing her adorned.
"Can't I grasp that from the glint in your eyes," said Roopa.
"You are a rare gem," said Sandhya, kissing Roopa.
"Cut by your love, polished by his passion and embodied in our threesome," said Roopa, even as Sandhya sucked Raja Rao into their embrace.
"I too love to wear a nose-stud," said Sandhya, twirling Roopa's.
"Don't we think alike, darling?" he said, pulling one from his pocket.
"But then, won't she need a poke, on her nose that is," said Roopa, laughing.
'I don't mind sending her to any doctor for that," smiled Raja Rao.
'And for that why would I need any other needle?" said Sandhya naughtily.
"It's time we chained him," Roopa winked at Sandhya.
"A lovely punishment," said Raja Rao, all eager.
Pressing herself to him at his back, as Roopa blindfolded Raja Rao with her palms, having removed his shirt thereafter, Sandhya slipped a gold chain onto his chest, and as her grateful man opened his arms, Sandhya sank into his embrace in mirth. But when she moved her hands to his navel, Roopa shifted her hands onto the chain, as though to rein him in.
"Won't our womanly togetherness adorn your manly chest?" Roopa whispered to him, showing him the locket.
"It's amazing in its alphabetical reversal," he said, hugely pleased.
"Let's go by the precedent," said Sandhya stripping him naked.
"First lovers first, that's the right order," he said, holding them together.
"Won't we take that as your order," said the mates, and began to show an unusual zeal in their lesbian togetherness.
Watching them in wonderment, he took out two waist-chains to adorn their nudity but as they reached for them randomly, he suggested they guess the respective destination of the gold and the platinum ornaments.
'Who knows, you might bluff, even if we guess it right," said Sandhya, seconded by Roopa.
"No way, as each has a name inscribed on it," he said in all smiles.
As they guessed theirs' right, he began with Sandhya, and exclaimed,
"Oh, how it vanished!"
When it came to Roopa, he wondered,
"How well it matches!"
In that euphoric moment, as his women lost no time to go to each other's erotic roots, seeing their waist-chains sink into each other's breasts, he said ecstatically,
"What a lesbo love!"
"Voyeured enough, have us now," sputtered Roopa..
"I don't see any entrance," he said, feigning helplessness.
"Get in here," said Roopa, raising her head and pushing him into Sandhya's.
"Deep throat it," he said to Roopa after a while.
"Lovey, give mine your hand," said Sandhya in spurting ecstasy.
"What love!" exclaimed Raja Rao in joy.
"Fill her thing," said Sandhya at length without letting go Roopa.
At length, when nature brought their uninhibited orgy to its fulfilling end, said Sandhya dreamily,
"What a life!"
"What a love?" said Roopa.
But when Roopa returned from her bath, finding her waist bereft of the chain he gave her, said a disappointed Raja Rao,
"I thought you liked it."
"I make it a witness only to our lovemaking," she said, embracing her mates with a feeling of emotional commitment to him.
Having slept for a while, Roopa returned home by the time Sathyam came from the Secretariat, and sometime thereafter she went with to the Raja Raos' place to proceed to Blue Fox at seven. Among those who made it to the party in the evening were the two Reddys, Wahab, Dr. Wazir Ahmed, and Tara, who held all eyes.
Sitting beside Sathyam, Sandhya said,
"Haven't you noticed our ear-studs?"
"They suit you both equally well," he said.
"We wanted to surprise you, as ever," said Sandhya.
'I'm glad you care for her, she's very happy these days," he said.
"Why don't you stop with that?" said Roopa to Sathyam in between her conversation with Tara.
"These mixed dinners are for novices, aren't stags the answer for the regulars? What do you say Sathyam Saab?" said Wahab.
"Three cheers," laughed Sathyam, lifting his glass
"I understand the architects are having a pretty good time these days," said
Dr. Wazir Ahmed to Raja Rao at the other end of the table.
"Can't you see, doctor sahib, with two pretty directors on board, how could it be otherwise for our romantic architect?" said Subba Reddy in undertone, before Raja Rao could reply.
"Thank God, you've stopped at that," muttered Raja Rao.
'It's I who has stopped at that, isn't it?" laughed Subba Reddy, who was high by then.
Sensing trouble, Ranga Reddy, who was sitting beside his inebriated friend, thought it fit to preempt a scandal in the offing, and announced thereby,
"I request Dr. Wazir Ahmed to present this miniature Charminar to Raja Rao garu on our behalf with the fond hope that one day; Integral Architects would conceive a modern day symbol of Hyderabad."
'Thank you all for a wonderful evening," said Raja Rao, sounding closure after they had dinner.
"It's our pleasure no less," echoed the guests.
Back home, in time, Raja Rao told Sandhya,
"Can't we look back with satisfaction?"
"I've never been happier all my life," she said, making herself smug in his embrace.
"Thanks to the favors of fortune," he said fondling her lovingly.
'But, I'm worried at times, whether our bliss too good to last for long," she said in apprehension.
'Maybe, by the law of averages, Roopa's unfortunate past may ensure the future stability of our love triangle," said Raja Rao.
"How I wish it's true," said Sandhya sharing her thoughts with him. "But, what can be said about the strangeness of life and the singularity of the relationships? 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 the male élan, and yours, for your dusky dame. In the end, it was the reality of the relationships that you presented me, helped me colour our love triangle on the canvas of our sexuality. And then providentially at Tirupati, spirituality too insensibly seeped into our threesome affection, 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 life. Oh, that's life."
'What more can we ask?" said Raja Rao contemplatively.
'A menage a trois with her, oh how we used to jest about it!" Sandhya said dreamily.
'Find a wife for Sathyam before she divorces him," he said in jest. "But then, one shouldn't be too greedy even in daydreaming."
"So, contentment is the finest quality even in love seeking?" she said, sinking into him.
'But it goes against the other saying that variety is the spice of life," he said, winking at her.
'The beauty of our life is that it covers both the grounds," she said radiantly.
"Affording us contented variety," he said reaching for her lips.
"Have your wifely spice," she said, turning amorous.
The blessed couple, at length, sank into a blissful sleep.