Chapter 8
Marriage and Honeymoon
Vidhya and I cleared our final examinations in flying colours. My only regret was that Vidhya beat me in the final rankings and I had to settle for an overall second position. But since I loved Vidhya so much, I was proud of the fact that she had topped her class.
Vidhya wanted to take up a job to benefit from her education. While our financial position did not require her to take up a job, I agreed to her wishes because I felt that she could keep in touch with the latest developments in her field. However, I wanted her to concentrate on our children once they arrived. She said that she would cross those bridges after we reached them.
As a topper, Vidhya had the option to pick up many jobs for the asking. The standard of education in Suratkal was highly respected in the industry at large and there were offers of employment from many employers for both Vidhya and me. I was going to join our family bidi business but Vidhya had a choice of jobs. She chose one of a Trainee Engineer with Mangalore Refineries. Her education in Chemical Engineering was perfectly suited to the job and furthermore, the job did not require her to stay away from Mangalore.
A few weeks after our results were declared, Amma spoke to Appa about my marriage to Vidhya. Appa agreed eagerly. He called up Vidhya’s parents and they agreed to meet in our home for discussions. The discussions went as expected.
Our engagement was agreed to and fixed for the month of October on Dassera day and marriage for the following January. Since by then Krishna was also engaged, we enquired with our priest to find out if both our marriages could be solemnized on the same day.
Luckily there were two such auspicious times on the same day. So it was decided that both our marriages were to be held on the same day at the same venue. There was a lot of shopping to do and Amma and Krishna became very busy. All preparations were to be done from a scratch right from the identification of a venue for the marriage, the caterers, the decorators and so on. In spite of an army of assistants, Amma became very busy coping with all that had to be done. Since it was going to be the only occasion when a marriage in our family was to be solemnized, we had to pull out all stops for the occasion.
Soon the big day arrived. The auspicious time for Krishna’s marriage was before mine. And as the bride’s brother and the groom, it was a doubly important occasion for me. At the end of the day, we were all very tired.
One incident I must describe here.
After I had won the bet with Raja in college, I had not resumed growing a beard and was clean shaven all along. Even at the marriage, I was clean-shaven. All my friends from College and from school were invited to the marriage. Both Raja and Sarala were present. I am not aware how but Raja and Sarala were by then engaged to be married to each other.
While receiving gifts and presents from my college friends, Sarala and Raja stayed back after the others had left. After some idle talk, it was time for them to leave to make way for the next guests. Sarala shook hands with Vidhya and Raja with me.
When suddenly, Raja and Sarala together said, “Convey our best wishes to Raji also!” For a moment, I could not comprehend, but Vidhya froze.
Then it dawned upon me that Raja and Sarala were cryptically telling us that they knew who Raji really was!
I smiled at them and they told us, “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with us. But Radha really looked beautiful and just like a woman that night that I was completely fooled!”
Later that night, both Vidhya and I lost our virginities.
We celebrated our honeymoon in Europe. We left India 3 days after our marriage. Vidhya did all the packing of our clothes.
We first flew into Amsterdam. Amsterdam was very cold when we reached there. Although we were fully equipped with cold weather clothes, we were not ready for the kind of cold that we found.
Soon we realized that we need to reinforce our winter clothing. So in the evening on the day of our arrival, we shopped for some winter clothing.
Vidhya was insistent that she wanted two thick sweaters in women’s styles. I did not demur.
We ate our dinner at a small but expensive restaurant close to our hotel. Being free for the evening, we wanted to explore the night life of Amsterdam for which the city is very well known for. One of the night clubs we visited featured some female impersonators. They were utterly convincing as women when they lipsynched some of the then hits.
When we returned that night to our hotel, Vidhya said to me, I have something for you.”
So saying, she handed me a packet wrapped in Brown paper. By the looks of it, I knew it contained some clothes.
When I opened it, I found a nighty in it. Also included were a bra, a pair of panties and a skirt slip. You know that night in the hostel room,” Vidhya said to me “seeing you disguised as Raji really turned me on. Can you dress up for me in bed?”
“Wearing women’s clothes turns me on too. Given a choice, I will wear women’s clothes every night to bed.” I said.
“No I have a better idea,” said Vidhya. She rummaged through her suitcase and came up with a light blue colored saree with a matching petticoat and blouse
. “You….?”, I could not complete the question..
“I want you to be dressed like a woman for me the whole day tomorrow. I would like to shop like sisters.” Vidhya said.
I was speechless. Much as I enjoyed wearing women’s clothes, I did not imagine I would wear women’s clothes in public like I was a woman myself!
“But these are your clothes! I don’t think they will fit me!” I cried.
“I think they will fit you very well. You know what I did? I gave orders for two blouses for each of the sarees I am carrying – one of your size and one of my size. So effectively, you can wear my clothes easily.” Vidhya explained. “The saree is mine all right but the blouse has been stitched to your measurements!”
"There is only one problem,” I told Vidhya. “I don’t have a wig.”
“Let me ask the hotel reception if there is a wig salon somewhere close by. We can fix up an appointment for tomorrow morning. By tomorrow afternoon, we will have Radha and Vidhya – two sisters from Mangalore!” said Vidhya.
A few minutes later, Vidhya learnt that the best place to look for wig salons was in the yellow pages, a copy of which was in every room in the hotel.
Unfortunately, the yellow pages were in Dutch. But using the visuals, Vidhya did manage to locate a wig salon which turned out to be just a couple of streets away.
Well for the night, I changed into the bra, panties, slip and nighty and we both had wonderful night of sex. Both of us enjoyed my being dressed as a woman and we reached previously unattained heights in our sex life.
The next morning, both Vidhya and I were eager to finish the purchase of the wig for me.
Around 10 we left our hotel and walked the short distance where the wig salon was supposed to be there. It was my first experience to be fitted for a wig. One of the first signs which confronted me was “By Appointments Only”.
Since we did not have any appointment, I was apprehensive about being served. We waited to meet the proprietor who was on the premises. At first, she thought Vidhya wanted a wig since it was a women’s wig salon. Language was also a problem as the proprietor spoke only a smattering of English. We finally managed to explain to her that we wanted to purchase a women’s wig for me because my wife wanted me to be dressed up like a woman for the whole day! You should have seen the way the proprietor’s eyebrows rose after she understood what we wanted. But then she recovered quickly because she had served customers like me, the only difference was that their wives had not accompanied them! In fact they seemed to be mortified about being discovered by their wives and they always paid cash.
The problem now arose about finding a wig stylist who would be free to serve us. Sylvia who had her first appointment at 11 and who was in early offered to help us. We located a cozy fitting room towards the back of the store and soon, Sylvia helped me to try out style after style. Finally we chose for a near black straight long haired wig of shoulder length hair which both Vidhya and I thought suited the shape of my face. Since it had bangs in the front, it effectively hid my normally broad forehead. I thought that with skillful makeup, I would look completely convincing as a woman.
We made our selection quickly. While the wig was being packed, we also bought some accessories for the wig – a wig stand, a cap and some wig shampoo. After paying for our purchases, we shopped further.
I wanted to buy some western outfits for myself. We found a nice boutique of women’s clothes a couple of blocks down the street.
Finding it a little pricey, we decided to go to a less expensive supermarket. The nearest one required a short bus journey. We found a bus stop without much difficulty and soon we were in the women’s clothes department of a large supermarket. For first time visitors abroad like us, it was a huge huge supermarket. Everything from car tyres to television sets to clothes were available in that supermarket.
Vidhya and I were nearly of the same size. So we chose dresses in the same size but in different colors and styles. One was a knee length frock which was a little daring as it had a plunging neckline. The other was more conservative with a high neckline and long sleeves.
Vidhya realized that we needed plunging bras for the daring dress. So we proceeded to the lingerie department and WOW! There were rows and rows of bras in all sizes. Both our bra sizes were 36C. We sought the help of a salesgirl. She asked us if we were looking for any specific types of bras. Being our first visit abroad, we were not aware of the wide range of choices we had. The next few minutes were spent in questions and answers flying back and forth between Vidhya and the salesgirl: At the end of it we knew that bras come in:
1)7 styles: demi-bras, full bras, longline, padded, lace, wonderbras and 18 hour bras.
2)2 materials and combinations: cotton and nylon
3)2 styles of opening: Front and back.
4)At least four colors: Black, ivory, beige and white. Also in red, blue, green and various prints with 2 finishes – shining and solid.
Also that the price of bras depended on the brands. The more expensive being Victoria’s Secret and Fredericks of Hollywood.
In all we purchased 4 bras. One full bra in beige which opened at the back. One front opening black bra with a plunging neckline, a front opening bra in beige which also had a plunging neckline and a wonderbra. The last was simply to check out what a wonderbra was.
Since the dress that we had bought was a little transparent, we opted for beige colored slips for them. We found some very fine silky lace lined slips. Just holding them in my hand made me want to wear them there and then! Next we went to the cosmetics section.
We bought matte finish foundation in three colors – one which was lighter than my skin tone, one which matched and one which was darker. We also bought two sets of mascara, eyeliner and blush. Finally, a set of attachable nails, nail polish in a matching shade and removers for both the nails and the nail polish.
We purchased some bracelets and clip earrings to go with my clothes. I needed to try out some bangles. When we asked the salesgirl at the jewelry counter if I could try out some bangles, she did not seem surprised. She told me to go right ahead. So with my wife to give me company, I tried out various white and yellow metal bangles. Finally I selected a set of 10 white metal bangles which would look nice on my forearm.
“You will need to remove the hair on your arms before you wear them.” Said the Salesgirl to me. “Also if your legs are seen, then you might want to purchase some panty-hose to cover your legs.”
“Do you stock hair removing creams?” I asked.
“Aisle 4”, she said “look for a pink colored bottle labeled ‘Nair’”.
We went to Aisle 4 and found what she had described. We picked up a large sized bottle as I had a large area to remove hair from!
We now wanted to buy some pantyhose for myself. Although I was going to remove the hair on my legs, I did not want to wear clothes that showed my legs. Furthermore, it would have been foolish to do so in the, by Indian Standards, bitter cold of Amsterdam.
When we walked across to the Hosiery section, there was an attendant who was in the process of replacing packets which had fallen off the shelves. We asked her as to what size of panty hose I would need. She was speechless for a moment but recovered to suggest “Queen” size.
Finally we needed footwear. This was the first time I was purchasing footwear in my size for a lady. We walked over to the footwear section. Again there were rows and rows of footwear. In the women’s section, we found to black colored pumps of my size.
I also discovered that women’s shoes sizes are the same as men’s sizes plus 2½ . So for my male size 9, I needed women’s size 11½ . We also purchased two pairs of shoe liners. Armed with all our purchases, we checked out of the supermarket and returned to our hotel.
Both Vidhya and I could not wait for me to get into my new clothes.
We decided that we would go to an Indian Restaurant for lunch. Vidhya said she would just pop out to the neighbouring pharmacy to make some more purchases, while I had my bath.
I went into the bathroom with the bottle of Nair, my new white bra, panties, loin cloth and hose. I applied Nair copiously all over my body. I did not leave a single spot alone – even in on my bikini line. After waiting for the recommended seven minutes, I washed myself off all the cream and all the hair. I was very surprised to see my skin very smooth and completely free of all hair.
After having a quick shower, I dried myself.
I ran my hands all over my body to really feel the smooth hairless skin which I could not believe was really mine! After drying myself fully, I wore my loin cloth, pushing my testicles and penis back into the cavity in my abdomen from where they had descended when I had reached adolescence. Not many men know that it is possible to push one's testicles and penis back into one's abdomen and that too quite painlessly.
Next I wore the hose. As I was to discover that day, pantyhose is worn by first rolling it up on one’s arm and then wearing both the legs together, instead of the way one wears trousers or jeans. I wore my new panties on top of the hose and looked myself on the mirror. I could see only a hairless feminine looking body with silky smooth skin and legs. Finally I wore the bra.
Tying myself up in a bathtowel, I emerged out of the bathroom, just as Vidhya returned with a couple of plastic bags. Pulling out a small box from one of the bags, Vidhya tossed it to me and said, “Here – use these!”.
When I looked inside, I found a box which two somewhat hemispherical soft rubber like flesh colored articles. They had a small amount of weight and were very soft to feel. The box in which they came described them as “breast forms”. Other details on the box said that they were used by women who had had their breast removed due to breast cancer.
“This is interesting.” I said to Vidhya. After reading the instructions, I inserted the forms into my bra cups. Immediately I felt the shoulder strap of my bra dig into my collar bone.
“Wow!” I gasped. “Is this how it feels when you wear a bra?” I asked Vidhya.
“Yes”, she replied. I fondled my new ‘breasts’ and found that they felt almost like real ones.
“I am feeling hungry, can you change quickly?” Vidhya asked.
“I think I would like to wear a saree today. Can I borrow your sweater, Vidhya?” I asked her.
“Oh sure. I will not need it, as I will be wearing my jeans.” She told me.
I chose the light blue saree which Vidhya had shown me yesterday and quickly wore the blouse and the petticoat.
I was about to remove my panty hose when Vidhya suggest that I continued to wear it as it would give some relief from the intense cold outside.
Vidhya helped me make my face up, while did my nails. I attached the false nails and found a beautiful colorless enamel in Vidhya’s collection which I applied.
While waiting for the nails to dry, Vidhya combed my hair flat, sprayed it into place while simultaneously drying it with the hair dryer. As soon as it was done, she put the wig cap on my head and attached the wig on my head. I started to wear my saree – although wearing it with my nails attached was quite difficult.
Vidhya noticed it and teased me about it, “See the trouble we go to, to make ourselves look beautiful!” I could only smile sheepishly.
I placed the pallu on my shoulder and got the pleats in place and tucked them in. I picked up Vidhya’s sweater and wore it on top of my blouse – I had to drop my pallu for the purpose. “Nice breasts!” Vidhya teased me as I blushed.
Replacing the pallu on my shoulder after buttoning up the sweater, I reached for the bangles which we had purchased earlier in the day. On my now hairless arms, the bangles looked very delicate.
Finally, I wore some more jewellery – necklace, ring and the newly purchased clip on earrings.
I picked up Vidhya’s purse and put in my documents – passport and International Driving Permit. Vidhya carried her identification papers in the pockets of her jeans. Now we set out together for our lunch.