Excerpt Story fiction Lost in the Maze Sameer Khan Life lessons Prostitution

He Couldn't Find His Sapna In The Brothel So He Slept With Another Girl But Then She Caught Him

( words)
*For representational purpose only.

After emerging out of the Grant Road station Tiwari walked ahead on the busy streets towards Lamington road. Asif followed his trail walking briskly through the crowd of shoppers. Tiwari suddenly took a left turn into a dark alley that led inside a building. Few hawkers stood selling hosiery in the alley but were hard to notice because of the dim light. Asif momentarily lost sight of Tiwari, only to find him again when he accidently bumped into him. 

Tiwari spoke in a hushed voice asking him to follow him. He swerved towards the right side on the staircase leading upstairs. The iron staircases in spite of being very old and archaic yet in remarkable working condition. He reached the first floor and found the place extremely dark and gloomy and an abominable reeking fetid redolence filled his senses with similar stench that marked the other brothels but it was worse only at A-one because there was barely any ventilation. Some girls stood under the dim light bulb but Tiwari did not stop at the first floor, instead he raced up on the steps towards the second floor.

Asif wondered why Tiwari did not bother to check the first floor, Jenny could be in any room yet he did not ask any questions and calmly followed him.

Unlike the first floor, no girls stood on the passage of the second floor instead a young man in white shirt stood speaking to another older man. Tiwari waved at the young man in the white shirt who waved back at him. Tiwari entered the open room nearest to the staircase, and Asif followed him meekly. It was a clean and tidy room devoid of any furniture but instead a parallel wooden platform was in place for people to sit. It also had a wooden telephone stand in the corner. Tiwari ushered him to sit on the wooden platform and went on to enter the door leading inside, towards the other rooms.

Asif sat alone in the newly painted room. He looked around and saw few pictures of Gods in frames hung on the walls with red bulbs below the glass frame that illuminated in the in shape of a lamp. The  smoke of sandalwood flavored incensed sticks combined was the stench of brothel filled his nostrils. He discerned that A-one was certainly a better place than Jamuna Mansion or Kennedy Bridge and the prostitutes emerged from the rooms peeped at him and went back. He waited patiently for Tiwari to return.

Tiwari tried searching for Sapna, his favorite girl in A-one house. The one who pretentiously claimed to love him. He had been having sex with her for a long time and shared some degree of bonding but changed his mind and made a deal with a short girl with curly hair instead. They emerged outside the inner section followed by an older woman in her thirties. The older woman, apparently a procuress, looked at Asif and asked him in an imperious manner if he wanted to have sex.

Tiwari answered on his behalf, “Akka, he will do it after some time. First let me go with my darling.” Saying this he placed his arms around the curly haired girl. The old procuress walked outside and stood chatting with the men. In the meanwhile, Tiwari asked the curly haired girl to go inside the room. Tiwari whispered to Asif, “I will be back soon.” He disappeared into the door leading inside.

Asif looked at the wall clock placed next to the frame of Sai Baba. The clock struck eight. All sorts of men entered and exited the brothel. The vigilant procuress stood speaking to the two men and in some time two other men joined them. As time went by, the place got busier and noisier by the minute.

The sandalwood flavored Agarbatti had extinguished yet the smoke pervaded the air. He did nothing but patiently wait for Tiwari to come out. More men entered and left the rooms after having sex. Some of the men would come out accompanied by the prostitutes they had sex with and others would stand outside to speak for a while under the watchful eyes of the procuress.

After the customers left, most of the times the women would giggle and make fun of the customers behind their backs, others would immediately rush back inside to be ready for the next customer.

Asif got increasingly restless but in the meantime, Sapna the girl Tiwari regularly had sex got a wind of Tiwari’s presence and was miffed when she found out that Tiwari had chosen to have sex with the curly haired girl over her. When she caught him emerge out of the room she confronted him and accused him of breaching her trust.

He shot back at her, “How can you stop me from having sex with other women when you sleep with hundreds of men night and day?” Sapna answered “I do it for my survival. I don’t have a choice but you do”. Tiwari was left speechless.

This is an excerpt from the book 'Lost in the Red Maze' by Sameer Khan. If you want to read the whole book, buy it on Amazon! Or just convince the author to share more parts by sharing this excerpt

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