“Elvis! Yes! I am Elvis from today. This is the name newly baptised on me in the machine
without a soul and in the brainless memory! Hahaha! Oh! My goodness! It is already
11:30pm. I have to run to bed before it is midnight. My wife is probably still waiting for me
to go to bed”. Rudolf switched off the laptop that he loved so much since he renamed himself Elvis.
The moment he entered the bedroom he lovingly asked his wife, “Hello sweetheart, aren’t
you asleep yet?”
“How can I sleep? You act as though you don’t know. For twenty- five years have I ever
been able to sleep when you have not come to this bed? Of course, except when you go on
tours,” Lucy lovingly replied to her husband while giving him a captivating smile of dimpled
cheeks.
“Of course I’ve noticed that but, what can I do sweetheart? Look, I even have to take my
office work home because of the overload”.
“It is alright dear, as women we have to understand when the husband is busy. Go and brush
your teeth and I’ve kept your pyjamas on the hanger there. Go and wish Eva for she has her exams tomorrow and if she is still awake tell her to go to sleep” Lucy said to her husband. He obeyed her like an obedient child and knocked at Eva’s door, tok… tok… “Darling, Eva … are you still awake or are you asleep?”
“Yes Papa, yes I’m still awake but I’m preparing to go to sleep in a while,” Eva replied from
her room. “Okay dear, goodnight, and all the best for your exams tomorrow”, replied the
father.
“Thank you Papa, goodnight”, replied the daughter from her room. She also signed out from
facebook on her mobile where she was chatting with her friends.
“I will also go to sleep now. I’m tired of chatting with my male and female friends for so
long. Poor Mummy and Papa think that I’m really studying instead I’m studying facebook
and Whatsapp! I’m also fed up of repeating my exams every year. While my friends have
completed their coursework exams for their PhD, here I am still stuck with my third semester.
I’m actually fed up of studying” Eva complained to herself.
In no time Rudolf got on the bed and fell into a deep sleep. Lucy also slept well till five in the morning. She got up to switch on the gas burner and boiled water; soon after that she
switched on the rice cooker to prepare rice. As soon as she had kept rice inside the rice
cooker, she took the vegetables from the fridge to cut and to fry in preparation for Eva’s
Tiffin as she had to go to class. Her husband woke up as usual at seven and as soon as he had freshened up, he routinely took a glass of warm water to drink and went to the courtyard. In his shirt pocket he kept his mobile. When he reached the corner of the courtyard, he slipped out his mobile and called someone “Hello Sweetheart, Good morning. So did you wake up early? Ok, have a good day. Bye”. He put back the mobile in his shirt pocket.
“Eva’s father … Oh Eva’s father … where are you? Please come and have your breakfast, it
has been ready a long time ago” Lucy called lovingly.
“Yes my wife I’m coming right away. I’m just strolling here in the courtyard admiring the
budding poppies. You really have very good hands, whatever you plant never goes to waste,”
he complimented her and entered the kitchen. “I’ll leave early today okay because there is so much work at the office. So have you ironed my clothes?” He asked.
“The blue suit which you wore on the day before yesterday still looks neat and tidy. You can
choose any shirt from the wardrobe. I have already ironed all the shirts yesterday” replied
Lucy.
“That’s like a good wife,” he complimented. Then after he had had his breakfast, he entered
the bathroom to shave and to shower. He wrapped his mobile in his towel because he did not want anybody to touch his mobile or even his laptop. He kept a password so no one could open his laptop which he carefully kept in his briefcase.
After he had freshened up, the time flew to almost 9:15a.m. and as he combed his hair he
whistled and his face looked happy. His wife was also ready with his packed lunch.
Eva had no time for breakfast because she came out late from her room and so she drank only a cup of tea, grabbed the Tiffin box from the dining table and shouted “Bye Mummy, bye Papa, I’m late for the exams” and off she ran.
“Look at our daughter who runs like the wind” commented the mother. “Yes, poor thing, she doesn’t even have time to eat. I don’t particularly remember her being weak in her studies when she was younger. Don’t you remember dear that she cleared every exam every year?
Yet now she has to repeat every semester” sadly commented the father.
“I really have no idea why is she in this condition. I have not seen her with a boyfriend then why is it so difficult for her to concentrate in her studies?” replied the mother in sorrow.
“No idea, what if she’s too busy with her mobile? Nowadays, there’s just chatting with
friends on the mobile”, suspected the father.
“Probably …” came the strained reply of the mother.
“So dear why don’t we take our daughter for a vacation to Goa after her exams? Our poor
daughter can freshen up her mind especially since she is also going to get her winter holidays,
or what do you say?”
“I don’t know dear. I really don’t want to waste money on such trips and since Namo’s
demonitisation everything has changed and I don’t feel like we have extra money like
before”. He looked contemplative.
“In that case it is alright. I’ll just take her to stay awhile in our village, and at the same time we will pay a visit to my mother and my youngest sister at Mawphlang. They will also be excited if I can visit them sometime and stay there awhile”, said Lucy.
They did not complete the conversation. “Darling, I’ll go now. Please pass me the shoe brush.
Look I spilled some food here”. His wife automatically went to get the shoe brush and gave it to him. He brushed his boot, kept the brush on the table and prepared to leave and said “bye sweetheart”.
She smiled at him and replied “Bye, enjoy your work”.
Brooommmm … he started his Estilo car and in the glimpse of an eye the car vanished before
Lucy’s eyes as she prepared to close the main door.
“How much does Eva’s father love us; I feel sorry for him as he tirelessly works very hard
day in and day out in order to provide for us. I am grateful to God for this” She thought and felt it in her heart.
Lucy organised her house, folded the dry clothes and arranged them in the wardrobes. While doing so, she found a handkerchief. She examined the handkerchief that didn’t look like it belonged to her husband. She was surprised and wondered “Whose white handkerchief is this? To conclude that it is new also it doesn’t seem so. To say that it is unused also it is unlikely”. She smelled it and could get a faint trace of perfume. “I don’t know, I will just wait and when he returns I will ask him”.
Lucy returned to her household chores and completely forgot about the handkerchief as she never suspected her husband of doing anything wrong.
Rudolf, as an engineer in one PWD office, was very busy overseeing building works. In spite
of his busy schedule, he took time out to call up women as he was a Casanova. This could be observed when female contractors went to his office and he would take time out to enjoy tea- time with them and chatted with them though there was hardly anything official to discuss upon. He never allowed the Officer-in-charge to delay the bills of the female contractors.
They complimented him as being a very good engineer. Sometimes they would bring
foodstuff for him and at times they would give him some cash when their bills were released.
At times Rudolf would go on tours, sometimes to Jowai, sometimes to Dawki and to other
places in Meghalaya. On such occasions he would take advantage of women to go and stay
along with him. Some women who were not decent enough would entertain him as he was
ever ready to avail them with contract works apart from generously providing financial
assistance.
Eva reached home in the evening and directly went to her bedroom. This habit of living in
isolation started five months before and only at times she would go out for shopping to Police Bazaar when her friends invited her.
Eva was frustrated with her plight whenever she remembered the incident that left a scar in
her life. When she was just fifteen years old studying in Class IX, she would always hang out with her friends after her tuition at Polo. It happened one day that Rahul, her tuition
classmate invited her for tea in a hotel near her tuition class. Rahul pre-planned everything.
He added a pill to her tea and within half an hour while they were chatting about this and that,Eva was drugged and became unconscious. The young man already rented a room. He
directly carried her to the room and ravaged her dignity. He took off her clothes and clicked
pictures of hers in all the undignified poses. After three hours, Eva came to her senses and
found herself in such a shameful condition. Rahul pleaded and apologised for doing wrong
and proclaimed that he loved her. Days passed by. The young man took advantage of her and blackmailed her with the obscene pictures and threatened her that if she failed to give in to his demands then he would expose her. In fear, whenever Rahul wanted sexual favours she had to fulfil his needs though it was against her will. Rahul’s exploit deeply affected her psychologically. On one level she knew that she did something wrong; on another level she had to take contraceptive pills because Rahul forced her to do so since he was scared of her becoming pregnant. Thankfully, she was saved from Rahul’s clutches when he had to go for
his further studies to Delhi since his father who was in the CRPF got a transfer and took him along.
After this experience, Eva was affected psychologically and she never liked making friends
with guys. Therefore in WhatsApp or Facebook she never gave her real identity. Her
Facebook account was under the name of Diana. All her facebook friends were fond of
chatting with Diana. She was very good in photo-shop and her profile picture was a beautiful photo-shopped picture of hers. Though in reality she did not have a boyfriend, yet she had a special friend with whom she shared her love in Facebook without knowing him in real life.
He was a young man older than her as depicted in his profile. For months, every night, for
hours and hours till midnight, they lovingly communicated through Facebook.
“Darling I love you” would profess the boyfriend to Diana and he would send her loads of
love symbols of hearts to express his love for her. He would tell her that he was still a
bachelor and that he looked forward to meet a beautiful and understanding girl just like her.
In fact her boyfriend is a married man and has a grownup daughter. She also fell in love with the man in the soul-less machine because of his enchanting words. The young man was so attractive in his profile picture and he looked like a cowboy as he was in his cowboy hat, his boots, his leather jacket and his jeans.
Three months rolled by and in that loving interaction they reached a point whereby they
could not hide anymore and started describing their bodies to each other – his manhood and her womanhood.
“Tell me please Darling, how big is your bosom?” asked her boyfriend. “Seriously I want to
buy you a bra and on the day we meet I will give you the sexiest undergarments. You want
them, don’t you?” Diana too, as she felt close to her beloved told him that the size of her
bosom was 38, her waist was 27 and her buttocks also were 38. “Wow! What a figure! I wish that I could hold you tight in my arms. I know that you would like my body too. I have a well-built body, manly as you can say. My height is 5ft 9 inches and my weight is 75. By the way, what is your weight?” he asked. “I’m 55kgs and my height is 5ft 4inches” replied
Diana. “That’s a perfect weight for a beautiful girl” he flattered. The conversations caused
both of them to long to meet each other and especially her boyfriend, as he was in the habit of having extra-marital affairs; he was dying to meet the beautiful girl who expressed her love for him. During such times he never remembered his wife nor did he remember that he had a daughter. His body shivered for her and he decided that he would meet her in person not only on Facebook anymore.
As usual, on Sunday night, Diana started chatting with her boyfriend since 8o’clock right
after dinner and her Elvis too was chatting with his girlfriend. Her boyfriend coaxed Diana to meet him in person the next day since he could not wait any longer without seeing her
beautiful face. The feeling was mutual with Diana since she was also familiar with the
sensation as she had had the experience with Rahul. She craved to meet the one whom she
loved in the Facebook world.
She agreed to meet him at one Government Inspection Bungalow in the outskirts of town
which he had arranged, that would be at 12o’clock sharp. Both of them were satisfied with
the arrangement of the meeting the next day.
“I’ll get to hug a beautiful woman like Diana with these manly arms of mine. I’ll lovingly
kiss her and caress her body, I’ll touch her soft bosom and then I’ll …”.
“I don’t know how I’m going to tell him that my profile picture is not really mine. Yes I am
beautiful and everything that I told him is not Diana’s but is solely mine – “Eva’s”. In one
way, I am ready to give my body to the one I love since I did not love that stupid Rahul who stole my virginity. Yet, my experience with him excites me now to meet the one on whom I
have showered my love”.
Eva could not sleep well that night and only at dawn she fell into a deep sleep and woke up
only at eight. She got up and took a bath and after that, she rolled a towel over her head and went to the kitchen where her parents were ready to have their breakfast. The father was already fresh and had had his bath while the mother was unkempt in a damp apron since she was busy preparing food for her husband and her daughter. She thought that she would take a bath during the day when her chores were done.
“Eva, when are your classes starting dear? And would you like to go and stay awhile in the
village with your Meiieit(grandmother)?” asked her father while the mother was serving them chana and roti that she prepared in the morning.
“Papa, we’ll start our classes on the 18 th of February, which is only after three days, I mean the day after tomorrow. And then you asked me whether or not I’d like to go to my village.
Yes Papa, I’d like to go there and stay with Meiieit and Meiduh. But I’m tired of only one
thing and that is the bad network. There is no internet connection and there is frequent load- shedding” replied Eva.
6
While they were chatting about this and that, they finished their breakfast and before they
stood up from their seats, Lucy asked her daughter, “Where do you plan to go today my
child?” “Mummy I’ll go to my friend’s place. You see it is her birthday. I will leave around
10:30am” responded Eva. “And you dear, you are going to work as usual, aren’t you? If it is alright with you I would like to request you to kindly take my shawl along and give it to
Mohanson’s Drycleaners because it has stains on it because mistakenly some curry fell on it
when I hurriedly had my lunch yesterday as I had to rush to church; can you take it for me?”
“I’m sorry sweetheart, I’m in a hurry today, I’ll take tomorrow okay?” he sensitively
responded without hurting her. He also got up to go to the bedroom to look in the wardrobe
for appropriate clothes to wear for the day while his wife was cleaning the mess in the
kitchen after breakfast.
Rudolf whistled Bob Dylan’s famous song “Forever Young’ and thought, “which shirt should
I wear today? Yes, a special day”, he smiled to himself. Then he took out a blue shirt with
white stripes along with a pair of formal blue trousers. He shook his head and smiled. “No,
how is this so? If I wear this formal dress I feel like I am either attending a meeting or going to church, no way! … I should instead wear a pair of jeans and, of course, jeans goes with a t- shirt”. Instantly he took them out and ironed them himself in case his wife asked him why he had to dress up so weirdly for work. As it was his lucky day, Lucy was washing the toilet downstairs. When he got out of the house he just shouted “Sweetheart, where are you? I’m going okay”. “Okay bye dear I’m still working”.
While Eva, as soon as she finished having her breakfast, she went directly to her room and
took off the towel from her head and disentangled her straight hair. Then she opened the
drawer and took out her rollers and thought, “Today I should look different, so my hair
should be curled”. Eva would curl her hair only on special occasions and she liked big wavy
soft curls. She rolled her hair on the rollers and waited for almost half an hour. In order to
maintain the curls, she used the hair spray. While waiting for her curls to get ready, she took out her new red dress. The dress was sleeveless with a V-shaped neck while flaring
downwards. The dress reached till her mid-calf muscles. She matched her dress with a pair of red four inch heeled shoes. As she was already tall, Eva looked taller and since her legs were well shaped and fair, she looked like a professional model.
She applied makeup on her face and applied mascara and kajal to beautify her eyes. When
she was ready, she took off the rollers from her hair. She stood in front of a life-sized mirror and turned her body to the left and to the right. When everything seemed perfect, she then
took the lip liner and shaped the contour of her lips after which she filled up with a dash of
bright red lipstick. “Now I look as beautiful as Princess Diana”, she told herself. She checked her watch, “Oh no I have to leave now as it is I have to wait for the cab. Ufffff! I should have booked a cab especially while I’m in these heels” she thought. She smiled, “No, why should I book a cab, I am not Eva, I am Diana. I don’t want anybody to know where I go”.
Eva was about to cross the gate when she bid her mother “Bye Mummy”. Her mother ran
outside and said “Wait, let me see. Wow! You are so beautiful today. I hope you hit on someone on your friend’s birthday. Okay enjoy yourself and don’t be late okay”. She kissed
her daughter on the forehead and said “Bye baby”.
No sooner had Eva got a cab to go and meet her boyfriend than her boyfriend reached the
appointed venue and waited for her near the reception of the IB. When Eva nearly reached
the venue, she called up her boyfriend and he responded to her call but went to the corner of the reception wall in case someone eavesdrops. “Hi Dear, where are you? I’m here before time to welcome you”. At the same time, Eva saw her boyfriend with his back turned towards her while he was speaking. He turned suddenly to welcome Diana and both were instantly shocked as though they had stepped on a snake. They just stared at each other speechless. Eva just turned away from her boyfriend’s face, It's her Father!. Rudolf was shivering from head to toe, and went towards her, “Eva, Eva, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. I didn’t expect that it would be you”. Eva cried tears of bitterness and sat in the corner and did not say a word. She was ashamed to find out that the man she was in love with was her own father. “Let’s go inside and straighten things out”, he pleaded with her. She pushed his hand away when he was about to touch her back. She covered her face with her hands and cried inconsolably. He face was tainted black by the mascara and the kajal. He raised her up and while doing so, the receptionist became suspicious of his actions. “Look here Eva. That man is staring at us.
Please stand up. Let us talk inside the room”. Eva had no choice and so she stood up and
dragged herself while Rudolf supported her by her shoulders. When they entered the room, he made her sit on the chair. “Eva forget about whatever happened. Let it just stay as a
nightmare.” “No Papa I cannot forget in a lifetime whatever happened. I betrayed my loving
mother. I was in love with Elvis, but you? I cannot swallow this shit. You have also
committed a sacrilege and cheated on your loving wife, my mother who sacrifices her life for us. Let me die. I will kill myself. I don’t want to live anymore. How can I ever look at you face to face? I’m sorry Papa, I also have committed a mistake”.
“We haven’t reached the point where we cannot forgive each other. Just one thing, let this
remain here and don’t let your Mummy know about all this else she would die of a broken
heart”.
“Wipe your eyes. Go and wash your face. Let us go home. I will remember that this is a
lesson for me not to do such things anymore in the open or in hiding. You too as a young girl you should retain your dignity in the open or in hiding. You are the pride of the family.”
“Papa I don’t know what would happen to me. I’m not worried even if I have to die because
this has really affected my conscience. Promise me only this that you would love Mummy till the day you die.” “I make a promise to God and to you that I will be a new man.”
