“I was stunned to hear all this coming from Roli, a girl who came from an Indian middle-class family, whose parents would commit suicide if they knew ‘they were raising her for all this while’. Sometimes I feel Indian parents never grow up. I was speechless but developed an immense understanding of this situation.

She had flawed in some way I wondered but she had articulated the whole incident without a single drop of tear, pretty much unlike the real, emotional, Roli.

I did not question her on why she had to take such a step. In fact, I understood her side and told her “No. You were not wrong I guess. You did what you felt like doing. You were being considerate and being nice and human. But yes the guilt isn’t inappropriate either because you wanted to do it initially. You probably should not have gone ahead if it wasn’t mutual. The moment you realized that there wasn’t the chemistry you had anticipated, you should have backed out immediately. The bed wasn’t your stage to perform such a thing. Somewhere if he was emotional, you were playing with his mind and that for me doesn’t go down well ethically.”

She looked at me with those hopeful eyes and whispered, “You are right. I should not have hit the bed as I was meeting him for the first time. I felt I was conducting a practice session on myself.” What? The shock was evident on my face. She understood that gasp well, blinked both her eyes, immediately took hold of my hand and said “Yes, but please don’t tell this to anyone in my family. I beg you please!”