If, God forbid, Dimple is sexually molested again despite my best precautions, I shall tell her that I understand, it has happened to me too, and I shall comfort her. My mum never comforted me because I never told her. Once I did try, though, to tell her that one of her card-playing friends in our house was trying to do something to me with all my clothes on and his too, and she said, ‘You want to cut off our nose in our society with such loose talk?’ And she slapped me. Dad would be too busy with his parties or his office to care. I grew up with everything, a fancy house, cars, good clothes and food, fancy friends and games, everything including a retinue of servants who would sexually abuse me.

When I got pregnant, mum and dad got a shock. They had me aborted and got me a ‘governess’. It was quite funny, I was in college by then and I had a ‘governess’. My first, and only, lesbian encounter was with her and both of us enjoyed each other’s bodies thoroughly until we were caught one night by my father and he threw her out. We should have been careful, we were making love in the bathtub. In college I smoked, drank, rebelled, had affairs with the most unlikely men, got pregnant again, aborted, went on the pill, and fell in love with the man who much later became my husband. He was going around with my friend in college and since he did not believe in contraception—he never has, he thinks women should take care of such things since it is their problem—he got her pregnant. I helped her through her abortions with him and that is how we got close. He understood me and cared for me the way I was, and I was comfortable with him because I did not feel dirty about my past when I was with him. I too aborted before he decided to marry me. It has been a comfortable marriage.

Yes, it was a slightly difficult time for me when I told him about my sexual abuse as a child in a drunken night we spent together on our third anniversary. He reacted and had a string of affairs, but I did not mind after the initial depression. Because he continued to look after me and give me lots of money and have sex with me. Every now and then he has affairs even today, I know this, but it’s okay because he comes back to me every night and that’s what matters, that he continues to care for me.

And he protects me from my parents—he is so courteous with them!—as he does from our son who is older than Dimple and growing up to be a difficult person. Our son fails every now and then in school, he gets into fights, he is so rude to me but since he is respectful to his father I feel it is best that they handle it among themselves. My husband respects me even more for this decision. He says Dimple is my problem since our son is his. That is okay with me, I am not the sort of woman who will run away from her responsibilities. In fact, in between, when I was working I realized that it was disturbing my family life, specially my husband who needs to see me at home when he walks in at six every evening from office before leaving for the club from which he returns in time for dinner. So I left my job, although it was well paying with very little to do. And my husband would keep calling me at the office almost every hour, asking me what I was doing. The telephone operator and my office colleagues were very envious, they said, ‘We envy you, your husband really loves you.’ I told them I was the happiest woman in the world. They said I should be, I have a husband, a daughter and a son. I always say I would have preferred two daughters. Daughters you can protect, sons what can you tell?