There was an extra bounce in Kalpana’s walk as she hurried home after her interview with Sigma Marketing Consultancy. She just couldn’t wait to share the good news with her husband Kapil. Mr. Srinivas, one of the owner-directors of Sigma had interviewed her and finally offered her a job! She knew in her heart that it was her husband Kapil who deserved all the credit. After all, it was he who had encouraged her all the way, helped her to re-write her CV and had in fact arranged her introduction to Sigma Marketing Consultancy, since he knew Mr. Srinivas.

Kalpana was in her late thirties. She was about five foot two, with a plump, well endowed womanly body. She had regular features, full sensuous lips and sparkling, mischievous, intelligent eyes. She had a pleasant, earthy, tinkling laughter. Her white, beautifully set teeth looked like a two stranded pearl necklace when she laughed. She was vivacious, energetic and sociable. She kept herself fit and active by doing exercises & yoga (which she also taught) and served her family a healthy, balanced diet. She loved to listen to music, read books (Hindi & English) and watch movies.

After graduating in arts, she had done a post graduate diploma in marketing management and then joined the marketing department of an up-coming FMCG company, first as an executive trainee and then as a junior executive. She’d soon made a favorable impression on her colleagues and superiors. Soon afterwards, her parents had arranged her match with Kapil.

Kalpana and Kapil were made for each other. He was tall, slim, athletic, good looking and had a great sense of humor. He was highly educated and held a well paid job. He had a liberal outlook. He had willingly agreed to Kalpana’s condition that she be allowed to continue to work after marriage even though he earned enough to keep his family decently comfortable.

Kalpana and Kapil had felt an instant chemistry the moment they saw each other. Their bond had deepened as the years had passed. They had been blessed with two children in quick succession and Kalpana had happily quit her job to concentrate her attention upon their upbringing. Her employers had been disappointed with her decision to put her career on hold, but had regretfully let her go when she’d explained her situation. They had urged her to get in touch whenever she decided to work again.

Kalpana’s youngest child was now four. In the intervening years, Kalpana’s mother-in-law had come to live with them and the children had become quite attached to their grandmother. Kalpana had felt that she could now think of reviving her career. She had started to look around but found that a seven year hiatus had put her at a serious disadvantage. All her peers had moved ahead in their careers and she could never have felt comfortable in her old company, even if they had agreed to take her back. Besides, she felt that it would be better to start with a job that made less demands on her time, even if it didn’t pay too well.

Sigma Marketing Consultancy had been started by a couple of friends who had recently quit well paid jobs with large companies. It was a small firm that specialized in offering marketing solutions. Although the compensation package they had offered to Kalpana was not great, the job offered flexible working hours and the prospects of quick advancement if she did well. She would have to work only four hours a day, five days a week; to begin with.

Kapil had shared Kalpana’s joy and they had celebrated her success by having dinner at a nice little restaurant. He had however been a bit apprehensive too. He’d been worried whether her dual responsibilities as a working woman and mother would be too onerous. Kalpana had been touched by his concern and had put his mind at rest by promising that she would quit her job if she found the going too tough. But Kalpana was no quitter and promised herself that she would strain every nerve to succeed in her new job.

Soon, Kalpana started working at Sigma’s small & cramped office located in a large skyscraper in central Mumbai. In the first few weeks, Kalpana was not assigned any task and was told to familiarize herself with the workings of the company. It was a small, newly started outfit and the atmosphere was friendly and informal. Kalpana soon felt at home there and waited eagerly for an assignment. She knew that Mr. Srinivas was negotiating with a large multinational company and everyone was hoping that Sigma would get that contract.

***

Shyam Belekar was a business executive in his early sixties. He was tall, medium built, active and energetic. In his youth he had been an athlete. He had taken good care of his health and looked ten years younger than his age. He had a full head of salt and pepper hair and was reasonably good looking. He was always well dressed and had a commanding presence. He had had a long and distinguished career with Trident Limited, a large multinational company and had worked in senior executive positions for the last couple of decades.

His wife was in her late fifties. His children were grown up and well settled. The wife was busy with her children and grandchildren and with her circle of friends, while Shyam was busy with his career. Both were quite happy to give each other the space they needed.

Shyam had recently moved to one of the company’s ailing subsidiaries as a director, at the express request of the Managing Director. He had been entrusted the task of turning around the subsidiary. He had spent the first few months in tightening his grip over the organization and pondering over what needed to be done to revive its fortunes. He had soon concluded that a new direction was required for the marketing function. Shyam decided that it was best to hire outside consultants who could bring a fresh perspective. Mr. Srinivas, the owner-director of Sigma had worked under Shyam many years ago as a junior executive, before leaving to work with another large company. In due course, Sigma Marketing Consultancy was retained as consultant by Trident. Mr. Srinivas readily agreed to Shyam’s request that he would like to vet and handpick each member of the Sigma Marketing Consultancy team assigned to work for Trident.

***

Kalpana was happy and excited in the morning, as she got ready to go to the Trident office. It was a big day for her — she was going to be interviewed by the big boss of Trident and if he approved, she would be part of the Sigma Marketing team on the Trident project. She gave herself an appraising look in the mirror as she dressed. She was pleased with what she saw.

She was blessed with a clear brown complexion and thick, shiny black hair. Her bust was generously proportioned, topped with thick brown nipples. She smiled as she recalled fondly how quickly her hubby Kapil was able to make them stiff, often without even touching them. Her slim waist emphasized her wide, fertile hips. After having borne a couple of children, her belly was well rounded and the otherwise smooth skin bore stretch marks…

She chose a simple yet smart, crisply ironed, well fitting cotton salwar suit to wear that day. She wore light makeup; just lip-gloss, eyeliner and a small, thin line of sindoor in her hair parting; she was happily married and proud to show off that symbol of her married status. She wore comfortable leather sandals with two inch heels, to make up for her deficiency in the height department. She was just a little keyed up as she hurried on her way…

***

Kalpana was pleasantly surprised to be ushered into Shyam’s office exactly at the appointed time. Shyam put her at ease and drew her out, listening attentively as she gradually opened up. Soon, Kalpana felt her anxiety and reserve dissolve and she started talking freely about her education, career, experience, thoughts and opinions. She even told him about her husband and family, to which he too responded by sharing information about his family. Shyam, like other senior executives was adept at interviewing people, having been trained in interviewing techniques and having had extensive experience to hone his skills.

When she left his office, she was happy. Although it had been a formal interview, it hadn’t felt like one. She appreciated Shyam’s warmth and the way in which he had made her feel comfortable & at ease. She felt that Shyam seemed to be taking a personal interest in her. He seemed to hold eye contact just a bit longer than necessary; in fact he seemed to be checking her out, although it was done discreetly, so as not to give offense. She however brushed the feeling off, telling herself that it was nothing. In fact, secretly she felt flattered that a big boss, that too a charming and pleasant one to boot, was paying attention to her. Unlike many other men who seemed to undress women with their eyes, Shyam’s glances felt more like gentle caresses…

***

Soon Kalpana was working full time in Trident’s office, along with a couple of junior colleagues. She observed their inner workings as days and weeks passed. She noted Shyam’s calm, businesslike manner and the respect he commanded. Although he was polite and friendly, he did not suffer fools and could be quite curt on occasion. Kalpana too developed respect and admiration for him.

She became friendly with many women working with Trident, who were soon sharing gossip with her. She was amazed and occasionally shocked at how openly they — particularly the younger girls talked about their relationships; she found it hard to make out how many were real and how many imaginary. They also gossiped about their male colleagues, including Shyam. There were whispers that despite his stern appearance, he was quite a ladies man; that he had had a few affairs with women staffers in his previous postings…

Some girls indeed seemed to have a crush on Shyam, speculating openly about how it would feel to have a fling with the boss. Kalpana used to smile to herself as she listened to such gossip. She could feel a generation gap between her and the girls, most of whom were ten years younger than her. She assured herself that a mature woman of her generation would never entertain such thoughts; after all she was happily married, with a loving husband and lively kids, right? Her thoughts wandered on to the status of her marriage…

***

Kalpana & Kapil had fallen head over heels in love after their wedding. Although neither had had any prior sexual experience, their shared chemistry had ignited passions that neither knew they were capable of experiencing. As they had overcome initial awkwardness & gained experience, their sexual relationship had become even more rewarding and pleasurable.

In spite of the great chemistry they shared and their deep love for each other, the initial passions had inevitably cooled as the years passed, and a degree of monotony had crept into their lovemaking. To keep the fires of passion going, they had supplemented their imaginations with knowledge gleaned from sexually explicit books and films. They had become quite adventurous and tried out many of the strange & kinky things that they learned, trying to satisfy each others’ deepest desires and fantasies.

Kapil in particular had become obsessed with a desire to have sex with other partners, for the sake of variety and greater enjoyment. Kalpana had not been enthusiastic about this idea and had tried to dissuade Kapil from pursuing his obsession. However, she had soon realized that he was serious. He believed that as long as they stayed committed to each other, there was nothing wrong in getting pleasure with other partners. He was not selfish or possessive and had told Kalpana that he wouldn’t mind if she too found pleasure with another man. He had in fact gone to the extent of suggesting to Kalpana that if an attractive man were to proposition her, she shouldn’t spurn his advances outright but go with the flow and see how things developed; a suggestion Kalpana had rejected with an angry toss of her head.

Such was Kalpana’s love and devotion for Kapil that she had eventually acquiesced, agreeing to let him explore the possibilities of finding other partners. Since she didn’t want to risk losing him to another woman, both had agreed that if at all there was going to be involvement with other partners, it would have to be by way of a swap with another compatible couple. Kapil had made several half-hearted efforts to find such a couple, but had not been successful so far…

In spite of finding the thought of sex with other partners to be abhorrent, the seed of an idea had nevertheless been planted in Kalpana’s mind. She sometimes caught herself daydreaming about having sex with other men. In terms of attractiveness, none of the men she knew could come even close to her own husband. The whole idea seemed absurd! She did however find herself attracted to strong, powerful older men (like Amitabh Bachhan) and tried to imagine how it would feel to let herself be seduced. But being a virtuous, faithful married Indian woman the thought of acting upon her fantasies never crossed her mind…

***

Shyam had formed a favorable impression about Kalpana during the interview. He had liked her enthusiasm, energy, maturity and down to earth attitude. Although he had found her to be pleasantly attractive, he had not given her a second thought afterwards. Being the oldest member of the Sigma team, Kalpana had naturally become the point person for coordination with Trident staff. As Shyam came more in contact with Kalpana, he not only developed a greater respect for her capabilities, he became aware of her as a woman, and a very attractive woman at that. There was something mysterious hidden in the depth of her eyes that he felt ought to be explored. After a long time, Shyam felt a stirring in his loins…

***

Being a handsome, well-built man, Shyam had attracted the attention of members of the opposite sex ever since he had become an adolescent. Although he was rather reserved and reticent as a youngster, a slightly older, married childhood friend had nevertheless seduced him, while he was still in college. Even though they lived in different cities, their affair had continued off and on for several years, until Shyam had gotten married. In spite of being encouraged by his lover to explore other relationships, Shyam’s deep attachment to her had not let him move beyond the stage of pleasantly platonic friendship with any of his lady acquaintances.

Eventually, Shyam had settled for an arranged marriage to a girl picked by his parents. After his marriage, Shyam & his lover had mutually decided to break off their relationship and he had sworn to remain faithful to his wife, a beautiful, well endowed home maker blessed with a placid good humor. As fate would have it, Shyam’s marriage had been punctuated with long periods of separation between him and his wife, during her pregnancies and due to the exigencies of his work and career, involving a lot of travel and postings to remote places.

The affair with his childhood friend had already awakened Shyam’s dormant libido and honed his senses for picking up signals from interested females around him. Although his attachment to his lover had prevented him from getting close to other women while he was a bachelor, he had felt no such inhibitions when he was away from his wife. Soon, he’d acquired the skills to spot & flirt with “available” girls. He had started enjoying the thrill of the chase, the pleasure of slow seduction and even more the ultimate prize of bedding his targets that he more often than not achieved. Over time, Shyam had notched up quite a few conquests.

Initially Shyam had been somewhat indiscriminate with his choice of partners, going after any sexy and attractive females who might be interested in him, young girls and older women, married and unmarried. However, over the years his tastes had matured and he developed a distinct preference for emotionally stable and sexually experienced married women looking to inject a bit of magic into their jaded, monotonous lives, usually in their thirties and with kids. He found in them just the right combination of youth, experience, a willingness to push the sexual boundaries and the emotional strength to handle without serious hiccups the inevitable breakups when they happened. Even as he had aged, his preferred profile of a lover remained the same. Lately however, he had slowed down. After all, he was long past the stage of being a hormonally driven young stud; and yet he still retained a keen interest in attractive members of the opposite sex.

His wife was no fool and was well aware of his roving eye. After a couple of early showdowns, a tacit agreement had been reached between them that as long as there was no emotional involvement with the other women, he was discreet and there was no threat to their marriage, she would tolerate his dalliances. After all, Shyam was otherwise a good husband, a loving father and an excellent provider for the family.

***

Soon, Sigma Marketing was ready for a review of the progress made till date. Sigma’s boss, Mr. Srinivas, assisted by Kalpana and other team members made a presentation to Shyam and his managers in a large conference room. Shyam listened quietly and attentively to the presentation. However, Shyam’s probing questions soon lay bare several errors and inconsistencies. It became obvious that Sigma’s approach was seriously flawed. Embarrassed, Mr. Srinivas apologized profusely and requested for a weeks’ time to come up with a revised plan.

“Kalpana, could you please see me before you go home today?” Shyam asked as she and Mr. Srinivas rose to leave.

“Yes sir… Of course!” Kalpana stuttered. Her heart sank in dread of what was to come as she shuffled out.

It was two hours later, after Mr. Srinivas had left after conducting a thorough post mortem of the disaster that Kalpana knocked timidly on Shyam’s door. It was long past the closing hour and everyone else had left.

“Come in.” His deep voice responded.

He asked her to take a seat and then spent a few long moments looking speculatively at her. He didn’t seem angry or upset. Kalpana fully expected to be chewed out for the fiasco. So she was rather surprised when Shyam did not refer to the presentation at all. Instead he talked to her about his company, the challenges facing him and explained how important Sigma’s role was in the task ahead. Finally, without criticizing her, he made several suggestions as to how she could do a better job in future and hoped that she would learn from her mistakes. Kalpana felt a great load lift off her shoulders and she gratefully promised Shyam that she would not disappoint him.

On her way home she mulled over what Shyam had said, and felt her admiration and respect for him grow deeper. She also recollected his eyes holding her gaze just a little longer than necessary and the pleasantly amused expression on his face as he looked at her. She was sure that he had been checking her out, but she didn’t feel offended or annoyed. In fact, secretly she felt rather flattered that a powerful, personable man had been paying attention to her as a woman. After all, although she was quite presentable and attractive, at her age she was no spring chicken…

Kalpana & her team threw themselves into their task with renewed vigor, many times working late into the evenings. In spite of being the boss, Kalpana found Shyam to be very approachable. During late evenings after most Trident staff had left, she and Shyam became quite informal as they pored over charts and figures and exchanged ideas. In spite of the informality, Kalpana continued to address Shyam as “Sir” since he was so much older and senior to her, while Shyam as usual addressed her as “Kalpana”.Kalpana found herself liking another of Shyam’s quirks — during their evening sessions after office hours he frequently expressed himself in Hindi, rather than sticking to English, which was the official language in the office. He spoke good, unaccented Hindi, somewhat unusual for a Maharashtrian. Since Hindi was Kalpana’s mother tongue, she felt a special affinity with Shyam.

She found herself looking forward to these exchanges and treasured the moments she spent close to him. Although they never actually touched, her senses were acutely aware of his manly presence and her instinct told her that he too savored her proximity. She started taking special care in picking the clothes she wore to office; nothing overtly sexy but nevertheless smart outfits that showed her off to best advantage. She got into the habit of refreshing her light makeup and spraying cologne just before the office closed, so that she looked fresh and pretty for Shyam when they met for informal reviews after office hours. From his smiles, nods and appreciative glances, she could tell that he noticed…