Book Excerpt: The THC: Under A Gibbous Moon

She and Jaiveer had separate bedrooms in their house. While they spent a lot of time together and ate their meals together, they had decided mutually that they would not sleep in the same bedroom for life.

They might spend a Sunday afternoon in the same bed or cuddle up with each other in the morning but they each had their own space and room. Her mother had sent her the faithful swing from their old apartment before she sold it and moved to Surat, and Jaiveer had got it installed in her bedroom’s balcony. Sanjaneka would spend a lot of her free time on it, reading a book or listening to music.

It had been uncomfortable to discuss it with each other but three months after they returned to Delhi, they had talked about sex outside the marriage and made rules for themselves.

Sanjaneka decided to lay down her cards and had quietly said that she did not plan to have sex outside their marriage so needed no rules to be made for her but Jaiveer had wisely insisted.

Life and its unpredictable experiences had made her grow up from the carefree college girl to a mature married woman so she went along with the discussion and contributed in the systems they should adhere to regarding sex, although she knew that she would remain sexless and that these covenants were just theoretical in her case. Sanjaneka sadly realized that her new life here was actually like living in a palace made of ice. They had agreed that neither of them would have sex with an outsider in their house — the house was to be treated as their own temple and not soiled by the lust of strangers.

Both of them could sleep with whoever they chose and they did not have to tell the other about it but with this freedom came certain restrictions. They had to be safe about it physically and careful to use protection to avoid diseases. Of late there was a growing concern about new sexual diseases like AIDS that made the STDs feared in their college years seem harmless. They also had to be careful not to get emotionally involved with their partners. This marriage was done to last for good and they did not need a third person to carry the weight of wedlock. And finally they were not to sleep with anyone known to the family. Discretion was of extreme importance and no one must hear of their indiscretion, neither the family nor anyone who may sully the Khurana family name.

True to their agreement, Jaiveer was discreet about his sexual activities and Sanjaneka never knew nor was aware of any of his partners or flings.

She could have found out if she had wanted to by checking his cell phone, which was growing as a means of communication or by following him or checking his bills, but given their agreement before they had gotten married and their understanding after, it was unnecessary and uncalled for. She respected the agreement between them and therefore, it never troubled her. On her end of things, she had decided never to cheat on her husband and tried to expend that sexual energy by working out at the gym extra. Years passed and Sanjaneka held her resolve.