‘Honeymoon at Kodaikanal,’ said Kamalakar to Raja Rao, ‘that’s what I thought. What do you say?’
‘I’ve Kothalanka in mind,’ said Raja Rao looking at Sandhya, ‘that is if you agree. You could enjoy the scenic beauty of Konaseema, and for me it would be like starting life where I came into being.’
‘I should love that,’ said Sandhya, seemingly excited. ‘I’ve heard that Konaseema rivals Kerala for its landscape.’
‘If it suits you both,’ concurred in Kamalakar, ‘it’s Okay with us.’
‘Seems our purohit is missing me,’ said Raja Rao as someone came to fetch him. ‘I better get going.’
While Sandhya saw him off with an expectant feeling, Roopa seemed lost with a forlorn look. After he left, Sandhya led Roopa to her room for exchanging notes.
‘How do you like him?’ Sandhya said excitedly, ‘Don’t you find him handsome?’
‘He’s better than my dream man,’ said Roopa inciting Sandhya to kiss her in response.
‘Oh, I’ve to leave you now,’ bluffed Roopa gripped by an urge for solitude. ‘Chandrika wants me to go with her for some purchases.’
However, Sandhya, who wanted to share more about her beau with her mate, tried to hold her longer, and Roopa, after spending some time with her mate in her absent-minded state, could persuade her to let her go.
‘Know that I would stay put in my bed till you join me tomorrow,’ said Sandhya, reluctantly setting her free.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Roopa as though attuning her mind to Raja Rao’s proclivities, ‘if you don’t show up in time, he would drag you all the way to the altar.’
‘Isn’t he the one?’ thought Roopa, closing her eyes as if to hold him in her mind’s eye. She felt as though the man she vaguely craved all along came in his form.
As though infatuation itself was enamored to feel the pulse of their love in tandem, it induced Raja Rao into reverie to review his feelings.
‘Oh, what a face and the figure to match it, as well!’ he thought excitedly, ‘a woman with a woman’s body, as Dostoyevsky put it, is she not? And what about that bewitching smile, well, what a fascinating woman she is!’
‘It’s as though he came straight out of my heart to delight my eyes,’ Roopa thought in amazement. ‘New, yet so familiar, unknown, but doesn’t it feel as if he is my own! Oh, how it tickles, as though his gaze gauges me nude! Yet, I felt protected in his presence! Well, he’s the Raja of my heart and soul, there’s no mistaking that.’