He looked at me and said,
“Saab, do you remember that yellow house next to the building site?” he lowered his voice as if discussing some top secret.
“Yellow house? No, I don’t remember. I lived a couple of lanes away.” I lied with a straight face again.
“It was this nice yellow house with a big yard. Right next to the site. Anyway……I swear to god…..he had an item there as well.” and he giggled.
“What do you mean an item?” Anirudh asked, now very interested.
“What do you think I mean? An item. A woman. And mind you, not some old fat hag. A young gorgeous thing half his age.” Now he was getting to the point.
“You’re bullshitting.” Anuj laughed and said.
“No boss, seriously. I can still close my eyes and see her. Short, smooth fair skin, big tits, curvy, long nose, light gray eyes.” he said slowly.
“You’re drunk. And you’ve seen too many Bhojpuri movies” Anirudh was laughing.
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.” he shrugged. “But it’s true.”
Anirudh and Anuj were laughing hard, almost making fun of Bhola’s story. Even Neel looked skeptical. Only I knew what the truth was. What I was interested in was, how much Bhola knew and how involved he was. So to get him going again, I said with a smile,
“So wait….you are telling me there was some young gorgeous maid who worked next door in that house and Sajid was sleeping with her too?”
“No saab, that’s not it.” he slurred sipping some more whiskey. “She was not a maid. It was her house. Posh rich memsaab with a nice husband and young son and everything. Wily old Sajid went over a couple of times making the excuse of using her phone for some work related thing. Then made a friendship with her. And then he seduced her.”
This made Anirudh and Anuj laugh even harder, saying how ridiculous all this was.*
“It is difficult to believe.” I said. “And even if true, it must be a different guy then. The one I spoke to was in his 50s and didn’t look like he could….you know….”
“Same guy saab, same guy. I already told you he wasn’t handsome. Ugly in fact. But he had that dominant personality. And that slutty bitch couldn’t resist it.”
“Haha, yeah right.” Anirudh laughed. “I can’t believe you’re buying this story, Tarun.”
“I am not lying, saab!” Bhola said, sounding a little offended.
“I am not saying you are lying. I will tell you what the reality probably was. He would go over to use the phone. She must have been a nice lady. Let him use the phone. Maybe a call lasted longer than usual. And you say she was a gorgeous young lady. I know how these guys are and what their fantasies are like. Tongues must have started wagging. And that guy must have lied about it to inflate his reputation. And there you have it. A rumor that keeps getting repeated.”
“It wasn’t a rumor. It was true.” Bhola insistently said.
“How do you know?”
“I saw it, okay?” he loudly said. And then bit his tongue.
“You saw it? Yeah, right” Neel picked up the questioning. “What did you see? Tell us.”
Suddenly Bhola seemed very uncomfortable.*
“No….I shouldn’t. I gave my word never to speak of it.”
“Come on, Bhola. You can’t tease us like this.” Anuj piped up.
“Yes, come on.” I added my voice, not wanting to seem the odd one out.*
Plus I did want to hear his side of the story. So far, everything I knew of what happened was what Purva told me. I wondered if someone else saw things differently. And maybe I would learn something new. It reminded me a little of Rashomon.*
Everyone goaded him to speak. But he kept shaking his head.
“It doesn’t feel right, saab. I gave my word. And she was a nice lady. I don’t want to destroy her reputation.”
“Destroy her reputation?” Anirudh scoffed. “We don’t even know the woman.”
“He might.” he gestured at me. “He lived in the same colony. Maybe he knows her. And he knows her husband. What if he tells him?”
“I promise I won’t.” I said. Then I thought of an idea. “Okay, how about this. Don’t tell us her name. That way I won’t know who she is.”
“But you still know where she lived.”
“Believe me, Bhola. I give you my word.”
“I also gave someone my word.”
It continued this was for a while, until we plied him with more booze and cajoled him. Finally he relented.
“Okay listen.” he was sounding quite drunk by now. “Initially even I thought the rumors were just rumors. That he was making stuff up. I saw him going over for longer and longer with his nephew Rasul. I had seen the lady myself. Very simple, nice housewife and mother. Even I thought that maybe she was just not nasty enough to kick them out. And they are just telling tall tales out of that. But then he started taking some other guys over. And those guys also said the same thing.”
“What thing?”
“That the chaste simple memsaab we see saying goodbye to her husband and seeing off her son to the school bus is just a facade. That she is a totally kinky slut. And she is completely in Sajid’s palm. She would swear skimpy clothes and fool around with Sajid in front of them. And then Sajid would take her to the bedroom and close the door and spend a long time in there. And when they came out, she always looked extra happy and blushing.”
“That is still just hearsay.” Neel shrugged.
“Shhh…let him tell his story.” Anirudh said.
“Well, here’s some actual fact. And I saw this with my own eyes.” he said earnestly. “These guys started going there everyday. Spending a lot of time there. The rumors started. Then they stopped going. I heard that there had been some kind of fight or disagreement with her.”
“More likely she lost her patience and kicked them out.” Neel said.