The morning sun broke out earlier than usual and was cajoling my face rather sharply through our bedroom window. I woke up, preparing myself for another hot & humid day. It was a proper May. My husband, Ravi was on the last stretch of his sleep. He really appreciates that part. So, not wanting to disturb him I sneaked out of the room and headed for the toilet. When I am in there, I started brushing my teeth and felt the totally damp nightie clinging on to my back due to the power cut we had earlier in the morning. The same soaked feeling in between my thighs caused by the excessive sultriness made me feel uncomfortable while standing. Irritated, I bunched up and lifted my nightie and the petticoat underneath, to my waist and with one quick pull yanked the sticky panties off my hip. It was clinging almost like a second skin, and I felt like a snake shedding its skin off. It circled my feet the next second. Immediately, I felt relieved as the cool air brushed the region. Bidding adieu to the wet panty, I freshened up quickly and headed to the adjacent room to wake up my child and to carry on with the heavy duty routine morning chores. I was thinking to myself �Should I have taken bath right away?� while I headed to the kitchen.
The morning time from that point on till 8.30 am flew at a lightning pace. Hurriedly prepared neha just on time for the approaching school van and sent her off. I walked up to the door to see off Ravi. Ritually, Ravi pecked my forehead at the doorstep before leaving. He went up to his car, but returned thinking of something. �Did you forget something?� I asked. He hugged me suddenly and kissed me strongly. His hands lingered at my back caressing the smooth curves of my butt. He gave a tight squeeze at the back and drew lines and made me feel moist inside at the early morning hours by drawing his finger along the crevice of my butt. With all 32 of his pearl-white teeth showing in his face, he muttered �You should really stay panty-free like today more often�. As usual, he received a kick in his shin for that �holy� comment. I looked around over him to find that the boy at the opposite house was staring at us from the balcony. I pushed him away quickly and whispered in his ears about our (un)invited audience. He smiled and does not seemed to bother with that and continued to tickle me be poking his hands at the strategic points which he knows only too well and enjoyed my dancing to his touches and quickly squeezed my soft right breast hidden behind the loose nightie. He gave me another proper long kiss. He released me and said, �Oh, don�t forget to collect the pictures from our trip last month. I gave the negatives to print at the Nair studio in our street lastweek on my way to work. It should have been ready by now. I�d like to see those special pictures we took� of ourselves.� Winking his eyes, he waved at me and left with a smile. I was thinking to myself �Should I have asked him to collect the pictures himself?� while I headed inside.
I turned and was about to walk inside the house. The boy was still staring at my butt absently when I glanced up across the street. Recovering quickly, he muttered a �good morning aunty�. Their family has newly moved in to our neighbourhood. I waved at him and moved inside and closed the door. I was siphoning my thoughts regarding the trip, back to the upper layers of my brain. It was true that this was the first trip in years that we had time for ourselves just Ravi and I, after the birth of neha. Since she has grown up now, we let her stay at my sister�s and took off. We both had a wonderful time. It was like our second honeymoon. Those were the snaps my hubby was talking about and the mere thought of the snaps brought in me the rushing memories of our trip. Suddenly, I became restless and wanted to see those snaps immediately to relive �those� moments. The thought of heating the water and taking a shower somehow seemed to be the last thing I wanted to be doing right now. I found myself, in dreamy state due to my thoughts about the trip. Since the studio was just down the street and the temptation to see the snaps was growing exponentially by the second, I decided to collect the snaps before doing anything else. I quickly changed ran to the bathroom and changed into the saree that I wore last evening and applied some perfume to my dirty armpits before getting myself into the dirty blouse from the previous evening. I was telling to myself, �Just a few more minutes�. And that�s all�. I then spent a couple of minutes on my shoulder length hair jet black conditioned silky hair, bunched it up and tied it tight as a bun. Off I left the house to the studio grabbing my purse along. I was in such a buoyant mood that while I was walking in the busy street, even the vehicular noise seemed to have a pattern and my brain was perching musical notes from the next to nothing undesirable sounds. It was a good 5 minutes walk in the already scorching sun and by the time reached the studio I was perspiring again at my armpits and forehead due to heat. Perhaps, it was a good choice to tie the hair as a bun as otherwise normally the neck region behind my hair gets all sweaty. This hair style (??) allows access to whatever little cool breeze that is generated during the hot day to inspect my neckline. I pulled out the pallu tucked at my waist to wipe my forehead and noticed through my coolers the person on the opposite side of the road taking a generous peek. Because of my forehead-wiping act, my left boob and the wide expanse of my hip region resembling a whirlpool