( The readers are requested to read the earlier chapters 1 and 2 of this series "Summer Holidays", to understand the continuity of this story so far …)
Summer Holidays - Part 3
But it's not that he didn't like being lifted and carried by normal sized women. He did have such an experience earlier. But they were older women, near his own age.
Lying there on his bed, Rajesh was reminiscing that other day when he was subjected to such playful torture by some ladies and girls.
This incident happened perhaps 8 years back. Yes 8 years…when Pinky was in class 5, that is she was 10 years old then. Rajesh was in his thirties, 36 years to be exact. It happened at a Parents - Teachers meeting in Pinky's School. Actually all these PTA meetings were attended by his friend, Varun and his wife, Anjali. Sometimes together, but mostly by Anjali alone, since Varun would be busy at work. But on that particular occasion, Anjali fell sick, a bad stomach upset. So, obviously she couldn't go to Pinky's school for the PTA meeting. As luck would have it, Varun was away on a business trip to Chennai. So, that morning Anjali called Rajesh and asked him to attend the parents teacher meeting on their behalf. Since he was informed at the last moment, he was late in reaching school at the scheduled hour. Pinky had already gone to school in the morning and was in her class. When Rajesh reached her class he found that he was the last of the parents to arrive. The meeting had already started. To accommodate the parents, they were being called according to their arrival. The parents were asked to wait in a classroom. The class teacher was seeing one child's parents at a time in the adjacent classroom. Since it was a working day, Rajesh found that almost all the parents were mothers only. Only a handful of men had come to the meeting along with their wives. Since this was his first attendance to such a meeting, Rajesh did not know any of the parents. But he found that most of the others knew each other and there were clusters of few parents in separate groups chatting amongst themselves. It was an all girls school. A child was coming in, taking her parents and going over to meet the class teacher in the other classroom.
Rajesh was standing alone since he did not know anybody. He could understand that most of the parents, especially the ladies, were looking at him and seemed to be talking about him in their respective groups. Rajesh knew that they were talking about his unusually short height. He is no longer bothered about this sort of negative attention. If a fully grown up man of 36 years, in office dress is only 4 feet tall and just 40 kgs in weight, he looks more like a school boy than an adult. For Rajesh with his 4 feet height, even an Indian woman with an average height of 5'2", towers over him by a foot and two inches. Even the 10 year old girls coming in and out of the classrooms were mostly all taller than Rajesh. So it was obvious that he would be a point of discussion. There were around 25 students in the class. So it took a while till Rajesh's turn came, since he was the last. The classroom was now almost empty except 5 ladies huddled at one side, chatting and joking with each other. Pinky had come once earlier to meet Rajesh and said that she would come again when their turn came. At last he saw that Pinky had come in and was calling him. He also saw that Pinky was beckoned by these 5 ladies and they were talking to her, as if they knew her very well from earlier.
He made his way to the door past those 5 ladies. Although he didn't look in their direction, he had an odd feeling that all of them were looking at him and whispering amongst themselves. Rajesh followed Pinky out of this classroom and into the adjacent one.
The meeting with the teacher went quite smoothly. The teacher was all praise for Pinky. She had done well in the semester exams also. It was quite a satisfying meeting.
Once out of the classroom, Rajesh walked fast towards the staircase with Pinky walking beside him. He has to drop her home to Anjali and then rush to the office. As he neared the stairs, the five ladies obstructed his path. He recognised them as those ladies chatting in the waiting room, even after all the other parents had left. One of the ladies asked Pinky to go and play with her friends down in the ground. Pinky happily ran down the stairs.
Rajesh was now alone with the five ladies. He saw that the five of them had made a circle around him. With his 4 feet height, he was around the stomach level of even the shortest of the ladies, possibly of 5'3" height. So, in effect, he could not see anything beyond the ladies since all five of them crowded around him, with Rajesh trapped in the middle. He had to crane his neck high up to look at all of their faces. They were looking down at him, smiling. One of them spoke, "Hi, we are the mothers of Pinky's friends. Actually it is our custom that at every Parent-teacher meeting we meet at one of our houses and party till late afternoon. The children in one room and we in another. Anjali also comes with us. But since today Anjali is sick, we are inviting you to join our group and have the party with us."
Rajesh shook his head and said, "No, it's not possible, I'm sorry. I have to go to the office. I have work."
The tallest lady in the group knelt down before Rajesh on one knee. With her kneeling down on the floor, her face now came in level with Rajesh's. She took both of Rajesh's hands and clasped them together. Her hand was so much bigger in comparison to Rajesh's small hands, she held both of his hands in her left palm only. She placed her right hand on Rajesh's left shoulder and said, "Rajeshji, please don't say no. You'll break our hearts. See we are all almost more or less of your age. Don't feel shy. You can think of us as your Sisters or your Bhabhis or your friends or even your Salis…whichever makes you feel comfortable with us. But please come with us. Otherwise Pinky will miss out on the party with her friends."
Rajesh was in a fix. He said, "But Anjali wouldn't know. She is expecting Pinky back home."
Another of the ladies spoke up. "Oh you don't worry about that. We just spoke to Anjali and told her that we are taking Pinky and you to our party. She said it's ok with her. If you want, I'll call her up and you can ask her yourself."
The tall lady who was kneeling in front of Rajesh now stood up. She was still holding both of Rajesh's hands in one single hand. She tugged on his hands and said, "Come Rajeshji, let's go. We'll get introduced to each other in the car. We are having our party in my house today."
The tall lady had released one of his hands, but was still holding the other. She was now literally pulling him. Rajesh couldn't help but start walking following the lady. She had a robust figure and would definitely be about 80 kgs in weight, which was double of Rajesh's. So obviously her pull was quite strong for him to withstand. He estimated that the lady would be close to 5'9" tall. His head was just above her belly level only. The other four ladies were walking around him, one beside him and the other three behind him. He felt as if he was being kidnapped by five tall, big women.
The ladies walked down the stairs chatting amongst themselves. When they reached the ground floor of the school building where their children were playing, the lady released Rajesh's hand. He had an impulse to run, but checked himself. That would be very inappropriate. Till now the ladies have behaved very politely with him, showing him the proper respect. They have done nothing wrong but just invited him to their party. There was no reason for him to run. He was just feeling intimidated because he had never been so surrounded by tall big women. Rajesh reasoned with himself, coming to think of it, the ladies were all of normal height ranging from the shortest at 5'3" to 5'5", with only one of them being very tall, around 5'9" or a little more possibly.
There are two points to be noted here. One was that, for him, tall women meant any normal sized woman 5 feet and above. Because the 5 feet woman may be short to the world at large, but for him, she would be towering over him by 12 inches.
The second point was that Rajesh used to get very upset and angry if anybody called him a dwarf. He believed that a 4 feet man could be called 'very short' but definitely not a 'dwarf' or 'midget' or 'hobbit', as some people called him sometimes. "Ignorant, illiterate fellows !!" He would murmur under his breath. This fact was known to his close circle of friends only.
Anjali, while talking to her friends, when they called her for the party, informed them to be careful that they should in fact warn the children not to call him a dwarf, even jokingly. Children can be naughty and sometimes cruel too, you know.
So as we were discussing, the ladies had come down to the school ground where the children were playing. The mothers called their respective children and they all came running. Pinky came to Rajesh. The mothers then announced that they all will be going to Babita aunty's house today for the afternoon party. Babita, the tallest lady, told Pinky that her mother, Anjali has given permission for her to also go along with her friends. Also that her uncle Rajesh will also be coming, so that he can take her back home after the party is over.
The ladies had everything pre-planned. There was one car which will take the ladies and will be driven by one of the ladies only. There was another car with a driver, which would take the children.
Rajesh wanted to go in the car in which the children were going. But one of the ladies whispered to him,"You know Rajeshji, these girls are very naughty. They might tease you in the car. So it's better that you travel with us only."
That sounded logical to Rajesh. Because he doesn't like children much, for the simple reason that the children invariably teases him by calling him 'Dwarf'. Sometimes directly on his face; or otherwise referring to him as a dwarf or a midget to other kids, which he overhears. So he rather willingly went to sit in the car meant for the ladies.
The ladies asked the driver of the children's car to start off first. That car belonged to Babita, so her driver was instructed to take the children home and take them inside. The mothers' car would be following just behind them.
One of the ladies asked Rajesh to come and sit in their car. The lady went in first in the back seat and asked Rajesh to come in after her. Rajesh sat in the middle of the back seat. Soon the other ladies also came to the car. One of them went to the driver's seat. The car was an Alto which belonged to this lady. She introduced herself to Rajesh as Sanjana. The tall lady Babita wanted to sit in the back seat, but the others said that her legs are long and she would be comfortable in the front seat beside the driver. She reluctantly had to agree. There were two more ladies left. Rajesh was wondering, since he and another lady were already sitting, how will four of them fit in the back seat. Alto is actually a 4-seater car, so actually 2 people are meant to sit in the back seat. But 3 normal sized people can just squeeze into the back seat, but it generally becomes a very tight fit. Rajesh thought that since he is quite thin, four of them may possibly adjust.
As the second lady came in, she shifted to the middle, squeezing Rajesh towards the first lady who was sitting on the right hand side window seat. The third lady was a little on the bulkier side. She wasn't able to get in fully enough. The door couldn't be closed. She was saying, "Shift..shift a little more," to the lady sitting in the middle. But there was no place to shift. The other two ladies were of normal health, but cannot obviously be called slim by any standards.
But suddenly there was space. The middle lady could move a little to her right. The third lady could then move in and she closed the door. And the car started on its way.
Everybody turned to see how suddenly the space got adjusted. Then they just burst out laughing. The first lady had just picked Rajesh up in her arms and placed him on her lap. Rajesh was speechless. It happened so fast. Everybody was busy in the commotion of "Shift …shift a little more…". Then Rajesh felt two fat arms, one behind his back and the other under his thighs just scooping him up from the seat and placing him on the lady's big soft lap.
"Hey, what have you done Chitra ?" Babita, the tall lady was laughing looking back from the front seat.
Chitra, the lady who was now holding Rajesh on her lap, with both her hands wrapped around his small body, securing him deep inside her lap, replied, "What could I do ? Darshana was shouting 'Shift..shift'. There was no space to shift. So, I picked up Puchku babu on my lap."
"Puchku babu !!" Another round of laughter from the ladies. "Oh what a name you have chosen Chitra! Fantastic!" This was Darshana now, the third lady who wasn't able to fit in.
Chitra replied, with mock seriousness, "Aarey..Puchku in our language means 'Very small' and 'Babu' is just showing him respect. I thought the name was quite appropriate."
"Sure, it is…perfect name", the lady in the middle replied. "Listen girls, we must all introduce ourselves to our new group member Rajeshji alias Puchku Babu." One more round of laughter.
"Ok I'll start," said the lady who was holding Rajesh on her lap. Rajesh was sitting with his head on one of her shoulders. He didn't have any option. The lady had totally wrapped him up in her arms tightly. Both of his arms were also pinned to his sides. His legs were dangling over the lady's knees. He was helplessly stuck on the lady's big lap. She announced, "I'm Chitrangada, Chitra for my friends, for you too."
The lady sitting in the middle said, "Ok, Chitra, pass him to me now, it's my turn." She extended her hands.
Babita was excited, "Yes, yess…this is the right procedure. Introduce yourself and then pass him to the next girl."
Chitra held Rajesh under his arms and lifted him bodily from her lap and handed him over to the outstretched arms of the lady in the middle. The lady took Rajesh in a cradled position. Her left hand went around his back and her right arm went under the bend of his knees. So Rajesh was actually taken by the lady lying horizontally in her arms. The problem was Rajesh's shoes. His shoes came up on Chitra's lap. But Chitra was quick to react. She caught hold of his legs and opened out his shoes and put them under her feet on the car floor. So now Rajesh's feet were lying on Chitra's lap and his body was held cradled in the middle lady's arms. The lady bounced Rajesh once or twice and smiled down at his face, which was turned up towards her.
Till now Rajesh hadn't spoken a word. He was totally dumbfounded by the sequence of events from the time the five ladies accosted him in the school. And now since he has got into this car, he is being literally woman-handled if there is any such connotation of the word.
The lady cradling Rajesh on her lap now said, "Hello Sir, I'm Emily. I'm 34. How old are you, young man ?"
Rajesh had to reply. How can he keep quiet even when asked a question. "I'm 36", he said meekly, his face now squashed on the full, tight breasts of Emily."
"Ohhh 36 !!" was a general response almost all together.
"Then you are as old as me Puchku Babu," quipped Chitra, the lady who had first picked him up on her lap.
"In fact, he's more or less the same age group as all of us, except for me", commented Babita, the tall lady, from the front seat.
Emily was in the meantime rocking Rajesh in her arms like a baby. She had lifted him up from her lap in her cradle and had brought his face very close to hers. "See, what a cute little baby he looks on my lap. And such a gentle baby too…no fuss…no cries." Again a roll of laughter from all the girls.
"Come, come Emily…you've carried him enough…now it's my turn. Pass him over to me", the third lady was getting impatient. She held Rajesh under his armpits and dragged him onto her lap. It was good that he was held in the cradle of Emily. So it was quite a smooth transition to the big woman's lap. She made Rajesh sit on her left thigh, which was beside the window. She had her left arm behind his back. She pressed Rajesh's head to rest on her shoulder. His face was turned towards the lady's neck. With her right hand fingers, she was squeezing Rajesh's cheek like one does to a small child.
"Look, he's got such a sweet baby face too. I don't think he grows any moustache or beard. See, his hands are so plain, almost like a girl's." It was true that Rajesh had very little facial hair. He shaved once a week only. His chest, hands and legs also had very little hair, almost plain.
"By the way, I'm Darshana. And I'm 35. Let me tell you dear, that my husband is a Marine Engineer. He is away from home for 6 months and sometimes more at a stretch. So I'm generally bored. So if you ever feel flirty, I'm available dear, just give me a call and come over."
Babita turned around. "Hey, that's not fair. You cannot propose to him. Let him try out everybody and then he will decide for himself with whom to have an affair."
Everybody agreed with Babita. As usual they were all laughing. Who would say that these were all middle aged ladies and not teenagers, the way they were giggling away at everything.
Now passing on to Babita was difficult. She was sitting in the front seat and the car was moving. The driver lady Sanjana, stopped the car to one side. Then both Darshana and Emily held Rajesh and passed him between the gap of the front seats towards the front. Babita had turned in her seat as much as possible. She held Rajesh around his chest and pulled him towards her. Emily lifted his legs and helped Babita pull Rajesh fully onto her lap. Rajesh was thinking that he was being treated like a rag doll, being passed on from one woman's arms to another woman's lap.
The car started again. Babita held Rajesh in much the same way as Darshana held him. The difference was that she made Rajesh face her. Meaning that Rajesh's upper body was held sideways by Babita on her breasts. He was actually lying on her body, facing her. Rajesh's face was just below Babita's, facing her. It was so close that she could kiss him if she wanted. Babita's left hand was behind Rajesh's back tightly holding his upper portion to her breasts. Her right hand was wrapped under his buttocks, securely holding his thighs and legs on her lap. Since Rajesh's hands were both trapped inside by Babita's thick arms, he was rendered totally immobile. Babita smiled down at Rajesh's helpless looking face, "Sorry honey, for holding you in such a pathetic position. Otherwise your legs will disturb Sanjana's driving. Oh no ! I gave away Sanjana's name. Anyways, she couldn't have taken you on her lap, now that she is driving. Don't worry Sanjana, we'll give you your chance when we reach.
Rajesh, I'm Babita, you must be knowing by now. I'm the eldest in the group. Also the tallest, the heaviest. I'm 42 years old. I've two daughters, one 18 years and the other 10. I'm 5'9" tall and 82 kgs in weight. By the way dear, what is your height and weight?"
Rajesh was not able to speak all this time. In fact, he didn't even have anything to say. Now he said, "I'm 4 feet tall and 40 kgs."
There was a round of "Ohh so cute !" ; "So sweet" ; "Mera chhota bachha" ; "My cute little baby" floating around.
Then Babita spoke up…"Ok girls ! Now we'll be reaching. Please remember, don't carry Rajesh when the children are around. The kids will be playing in the room upstairs. Raina, my elder daughter is at home, she doesn't have college today. She will be taking care of all your daughters. We will be partying in the ground floor room. The food has already been ordered. We'll just have to help ourselves. I've ensured that the maids will not be coming before 5 pm. So you can eat and drink and dance and do whatever you like with full freedom. And now when we get down from the car, just escort Rajesh to the ground floor room. I'll just check up on the kids on the 1st floor and join you. Just remember to keep the room door locked from inside for your own privacy."
The car stopped in front of a bungalow. Babita hurriedly got down, putting Rajesh on the front seat. His shoes were passed from the back seat. Babita opened the gate and the car went inside. Babita's car which had brought the children was already inside the porch of the bungalow. The ladies all got out of the car. They escorted Rajesh inside, whileBabita hurried upstairs to check how the children were doing.
Now the real party will begin. Rajesh was wondering what awaited him. If whatever ragging happened during the car ride was a trailer…then 'Picture toh abhi baki hai'...the Film is yet to begin.
( To be continued….)
