Crossing the Mirage:Passing Through Youth

And Chandra turned tentative.

“Classy maal sir,” he said finding “only when her man is on tour, she takes a detour.”

“How old is she?”

“Randy thirty,” the pimp paused for a calculated effect on his prey, “but Spencer sir.”

“How much is that?” “Hundred sir,” said the pimp with a wink, “ for each fling.”

“Show me then.”

“Why forget me,” said the pimp in smile, “Well, I know you're in a hurry.”

“It's nothing like that,” said Chandra embarrassed,

“Tell me.”

“Not much sir," said the pimp as if to lighten Chandra's burden, “Just twenty bucks.”

“Okay.”

“Come on sir,” he said leading him into a nearby mohalla.

Asking Chandra to wait nearby a paan shop, the pimp said that he would go and sound her. By the time he returned, finding Chandra impatient, the pimp whispered into his ears that the woman would soon pass them by.

“Why all this fuss?” said Chandra in vexation.

“She seeks the man in man sir,‟ said the pimp affecting admiration, “and scents his stuff in the street, so to say from a mile. If you catch her eye, you know what I mean sir, you'll have one hell of a time in her bed.”

Nauseated as he was with the ways of the whores, Chandra was bowled over by the part-timer's novel way of soliciting. Wondering all the same whether she could reject him on face value, crossing his fingers, he waited in anticipation. And soon the pimp pinched him as a pretty dame neared them.

“How about her sir?” said the pimp in an undertone, “had you ever been with a better one?”

“Well.”

“She signaled her 'yes' sir,” said the pimp, as she passed them by.

Relieved of his apprehension and whetted by his desire, Chandra's enamored eyes followed her till she turned the bend. Pocketing his twenty bucks, the pimp led Chandra to a nearby street corner and asked him to proceed forthwith to the fourth house on the left.

“You better take me to her,” said Chandra having thought better of it.

“Didn't I tell you, it's all discreet with her, as discreet as it could be,” said the pimp sounding intolerant. “Why there is no way could every Tom, Dick and Harry knock at her door. Thank your stars that she would be waiting for you, having gone home through the back alley; don't waste time.”

As the pimp retracted spiritedly into a by road of that mohalla, Chandra put his tentative step forward for the dream rendezvous. But greeted by a padlock on the door, it dawned on him that he was taken for a ride. Oh how frustrated he was, not only on account of his insatiate urge but also at the ease with which he had allowed himself to be fooled.