But it will really make me very happy. And then, after the initial period of unpleasantness and the feeling of being taken advantage of is past, she will also become thrilled.

Must think of a plan for this weekend.

19 September 2006

11.15 a.m.

GOURI IS MINE! AT LEAST FOR THE TIME BEING!

Fantastic news on a Sunday morning! Yesterday Gouri and I went out for dinner, drinks and some Bollywood dancing at that H2O place in Bandra.

It really wasn’t my idea.

If you remember I had adopted ‘Never dance in front of other people irrespective of what they make you drink and what music they play. And especially not as part of an interclass dance championship where all one had to do was hand over a pair of dandiya sticks to the lead pair with a flamboyant twirl. Which twirl was mistimed and the lead dancer, Suvidh Radhakrishnan, sustained grave pokes in the right eye and left nipple’ as one of my more recent and significant personal mottoes.

But Gouri was insistent. Thankfully she got very drunk very quickly. And then she began to dance like a total madwoman till they politely asked us to leave.

I took her home, dropped her on the bed and then just as I was tucking her in she became sick all over my brand new Fabindia super-short party kurta. I cleaned her up with a wet towel and then went and soaked my kurta in soap water for the night.

Then I came back and had to make the complicated decision of where to lie down to sleep. The gallant thing would have been to go and hit the couch. But what if Gouri became sick again and needed someone to clean her up, change her clothes? Or things like that? Finally, after much deliberation, I decided that the safest thing for Gouri would be if I slept at the farthest end of her bed, as distant from her body as possible so that I would be able to respond to any emergency in a moment. This was not an easy decision. I figured that it was quite possible that Gouri would move around in her sleep and perhaps even end up rolling over and cuddling up next to me.

Under the circumstances, it was a risk I was willing to take.

I went off to sleep almost immediately but only after creating a somewhat protective wall of pillows between us.

Today morning, however, things did not start so well.

I opened my eyes to see Gouri looking at me in horror from the other side of the bed. She was not crying but there was sheer terror in her eyes. She immediately asked me what had happened the night before. Why was I in her bed? Had something disastrous happened?

I began telling her how we’d gone to H20 and she’d got piss drunk and I’d had to carry her home. And then just as I told her about the throwing up and the kurta obliteration she broke down and began to apologize.