Verna was a Virgin : The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

[Rated 'Mature'. If you are below the age 16, then go here first]

Verna was a virgin. She decided to make love.

She visited her uncle whose dress was of the same maroon colour as his drink and who wore a jacket on all occasions, except perhaps at night about which Verna knew nothing.

Verna’s uncle asked her to wait till marriage for “while there is nothing wrong in a girl of your age to make love, the wait is always sweeter’.

Then she saw some red marks around her aunt’s fair and milky wrists as her uncle arose to yell at the television and shake it so that it presented better quality of picture. At this, her village educated but milk-white aunt–a favourite of many North Indian men weaned to the fairness culture–pulled her knees closer to her chest so that she could keep her head on them.

Later at night, the aunt told Verna that fights between married couples are regular human affairs but her uncle is generally a pure man and his ‘manhood’ responded to the maximum gravitational pull before marriage and till the wedding night.

Verna grew disillusioned. Sex was wrong but violence was not. She read her grammar book and rephrased the sentence; violence was better than sex. Then she talked to her teacher whom she had always avoided because she was known to be a sl** but who never really lost her temper or her teaching skills. Her teacher disrobed to prove to Verna that her body was flawless and that all the red bite marks were in fact, red bite marks.

After Verna regained control over her breath, the sultry teacher gave her some books to read and Verna realised that virginity was an oppression forced upon women. And that a society without sex was more likely to behead and murder than a society that revelled in sexual pleasures.

Verna walked along the college corridor and remembered the Principal who often talked about sin and punishment. “God loves you… but dare you defy him…”

Now in a room, Verna was naked waist down as she approached the bed. Her man, a veteran of several sports, lay on the bed waiting for his prize to come to him. He was a good boy who touched the feet of all elders in his family and took care of all youngsters. And made sure that his sister was not seen talking to any boy for more than a few minutes for “the world is a bad place and you can not be sure of today’s boys.”

Should Verna just sit on the boy and end her quenching desire of the type found in romantic novels?

She advertised for her virginity using a pseudonym. The boy whose pride was hurt when Verna wore her shorts and exited his room also bid for V-na. He bid only a few dollars but in an email pledged immense satisfaction of the footballer-cheerleader type. Verna’s uncle didn’t bid but sent amorous mails to her and said that when she was done playing with her toys she would need comfort and affection whose reference she must have found in romantic novels.

Sex and violence are forced fodders for the respected and widely-circulated newspapers who claim to represent public opinion. V-na was widely condemned for being a bad girl who was a sl** and who was bringing a bad name to womanhood and all that is traditionally ascribed to women. Her attackers included a house-wife who gave up painting for marriage but now wanted more respect for home-makers.

Verna asked her aunt about her opinion on the subject and she promptly wrote in slow and laborious letters that “V-na was amoral… she was going in the wrong direction…”
Then the aunt felt very happy to have expressed herself and to have used her education-whatever little she had-for a noble purpose. And then she excused herself to change into a long-sleeved dress that covered her fair and milky wrists.

“Sin,” said the Principal, politely.

Verna wondered what was wrong in taking money for losing her virginity. She was just charging money for what men consider a very prized commodity. And it was definitely better than violence.

Later, Verna saw on television, images of women being thrashed in a metropolitan city in India. She took off her skirt and lay naked on the bed. She had nice and smooth thighs, she felt. And her teacher agreed.

During a rendezvous at a restaurant the duo discussed if it is not fair to seek happiness every day in life. Or if sex makes men and women happy, and happy men and women don’t need religion to fill in for sex. And how to spot a happy man.

Later, Verna was roaming an empty neighbourhood and she found a boy, younger to her, who made no pretence of staring at her bosom and legs. Verna asked him if he wanted to make love to her. The boy agreed and asked Verna if this would cause anguish to her.

It’s not known if Verna found this boy to be honest or if she was simply overawed by her loneliness in the neighbourhood-a fantasy popular among women-or if she was simply persuaded by the condoms the boy carried in his wallet.

It was her decision, unfettered by morality, or by the common excuse of guilt and temptation.

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The Young India

Verna was a Virgin

on January 31, 2009

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