Meeting the Singh Family

“Hi again Guntaj this is Mareike. I’m looking forward to speaking with your wife.”

There was a pause as Guntaj handed the phone over to his wife. Then Katiya spoke in Oxford English with barely a trace of the usual Indian English accent.

“I’d be very happy to spend my days here with you Mareike while Guntaj plays robotics with his playmates. I’m sorry German is not one of my known languages and its very kind of you to be willing to put up with my lack in this area. My area of professional interest is in the socio-economic fields, and I work for the government of India as a consultant in social development and urban planning. I let Guntaj enjoy his electrical engineering and programming work during the day but nights he must put that aside and do things with me unless there is a special project he works on day and night briefly. What interests do you have and when can we get together to enjoy some fun time together?”

Mareike felt comfortable with this woman even before meeting with her. She speculated whether Katiya would be interested in her field of studies which happened to be economics. Her team specialty at the bank was studying the effects of government policies internationally on foreign exchange movements and their impact on the German economy. And in that capacity, she did sit on some government committees, had been a guest lecturer in foreign universities and speaker in think tanks abroad before she and Baron had met at a convention and built a relationship over time that led to marriage. They hadn’t been married that long. She was familiar with the movers and shakers in the world bank too. Perhaps some of their interests overlapped and she was looking forward to exploring that in addition to showing her some of the attractions of Germany. Maybe they could even do some trips that required a night stopover apart from their husbands and let their husbands have a boy’s day out together.

So, it was arranged that Mareike would go to work the next day and delegate someone to take over while she had a couple of weeks’ vacation. Then the following day Mareike would pick Katiya up from the hotel and deliver her back to the hotel in the evening at a time coordinated with Guntaj’s program or take her directly to her home if Guntaj had a free evening to spend with them.

Two days later Mareike pulled into the hotel entrance and not knowing what her guest for the day looked like had asked her to be at the entrance at 9am dressed casually and holding up an identity card large enough for her to read from the car with her name on. She knew Katiya would be Indian, but Germany was now home to a smorgasbord of races and skin colors so skin color would not help identify her guest. She knew they’d not permit her to park in front and walk to the entrance to look for her guest. Either a parking attendant would take the car to parking, or you dropped someone off or took them on board quickly and moved on. She scanned those at the door and found her mark looking at each car as it came into the front of the hotel. Mareike quickly pressed the button to open the passenger window and waved vigorously and the alert Katiya spotted her instantly and sped to the passenger side and got in carrying her things for the day. Katiya immediately warmed to her host and thanked her immensely for her kindness in showing her around the city. The conversation in English was immediate and delivered as if the two women had known each other for years. Each had heard positive stories of what their husbands had enjoyed together as friends during their university days and their wives felt part of the scene after those stories had been repeated over and over during the intervening years. Mareike handed her new friend a list in English of the main tourist attractions in Munich and asked which of them Katiya would like to see. Katiya quickly looked the list over.

“Mareike I’ve visited tourist places in many parts of the world. Would you be offended if I said what I most wanted to see in Germany was culture and cooking. I want to taste and try German cooking for myself. Do you enjoy cooking or is your life only professional and you have a cook prepare your meals? I want to see them making things like cuckoo clocks and different traditional art expressions. I want to visit places where they prepare gemstones and watch them at work. Are any of that available in Munich? If not where in Germany can I see all those things. I want to travel on your rivers and see the mountains. Is any of this within a day’s journey from where we are?”

Mareike was so happy to hear what this woman from another land valued and her mind began to work overtime. She turned to her new friend smiling.

“How would you like it if I suggested we go to my place and you, and I take out my recipe book and cook to our hearts content today. I love cooking and I’d love to have someone with that interest so we could cook together. We have a spa at the back and if it doesn’t offend your culture, we can take our food out there and soak in the spa and eat and drink to our heart’s content and just talk. You can tell me about your background, and I can share mine with you. Don’t worry about a bathing suit I can loan you one.”

Katiya giggled to herself softly. Her conservative family would be horrified if they knew she’d ever even think of wearing such an immodest thing as a swimsuit. She’d travelled abroad and seen how it was socially acceptable to wear what you wanted to, and women were protected against men to a large extent. But that was not the case in her beloved nation. She’d been invited to beach parties and swimming pools in their trips abroad but was always aware that her countrymen had eyes and ears everywhere and what was done supposedly in secret was common knowledge eventually. It was not the individual’s reputation at stake. It was the community’s reputation, and the community could take the most terrible retributions in extreme cases. But this innocent foreigner would never comprehend that.

“Let’s go to your place Mareike, that would be my most favorite activity for today. Do you have servants at your home?”

“No, we don’t Katiya. Do you need to have something done we can’t do ourselves?”

“No. You see I’ve never used a bathing suit. We women in India bathe in garments unless it’s a Bollywood type enclave where this is tolerated and expected as long as its only displayed momentarily in a movie and usually that’s associated with low morals and frowned upon. But because there’ll be no one at your place only we two women I want to try that too. Please don’t tell Guntaj though. I don’t know how he’d react.”

Mareike turned the car toward home and sped there looking forward to a relaxing afternoon. She felt a strong attraction to this foreign woman who was highly educated and held a responsible professional position. They could talk shop and talk women’s talk too and just enjoy hanging out together.

The two of them enjoyed cooking a typical German lunch and then poured themselves into making a variety of German cakes and other treats through the afternoon. Katiya watched and learned through being an active part of each preparation. Then, in midafternoon tired out from the active cooking marathon and having evidence of that spread around in the kitchen they went to the bedroom where Mareike showed her wardrobe and Katiya tried some for size then the swimsuits were produced. Katiya was shocked when told nothing else was put over the top of what was handed to her. She looked at Mareike already dressed in her bikini and then rechecked the room to make sure there were no hidden observers. She covered herself with her hands as they went to the patio where the spa was located and tentatively lowered herself into the churning waters. It was so relaxing she soon forgot she had little on by Indian standards. Mareike smiled as she saw the initial fear slowly subside in the warmth of this pool.

“We Europeans don’t feel it wrong to bathe in our natural state Mareike, but we’d never embarrass anyone who felt differently by doing that in front of them. Now that you’ve tried this isn’t it better than going into a spa with clothes on? Now I want to hear all about your culture so I can understand you better. I had such a good time with you today. I feel like I have a sister at last. I only have brothers as siblings.

Later, as it approached the time when both men would be returning from their daily activities Mareike drove her new sister back to the hotel. The afternoon had been used after the spar experience looking at possibilities of a tour to see some of the sights Katiya had shown a preference for.

In that Guntaj had expressed interest in having a free weekend with Baron and his wife the two women had suggested an itinerary that would take them away for the weekend to at least part of the Tyrol Mountains. It was only about a two-hour drive so they could go on Friday evening and spend the night in a Zimmer to be booked in advance if the men approved and just enjoy exploring there. If the men agreed, they could use the final weekend before they had to return to India with the team to explore the German river system and many interesting things along the way of tourist interest. So much to see there and they could make another overnight stop in a Zimmer to be booked in advance. Some of these areas Guntaj had explored during his university years, so he was enthusiastic at these suggestions.

The two women did spend some of their days together exploring the tourist places in Munich but most of the day they gravitated to the Schultz schloss or castle as Mareike interpreted this to her English-speaking friend where Katiya baked, relaxed in the pool, and sunbaked in the bikini she was now quite comfortable in with Mareike at her side. 

She clung onto Mareike and wept at the airport as the Schultz’s saw them off at the airport as the rest of Gurtej’s team looked on in surprise inquiring how this foreign woman was related to their team leader Gurtej. They were equally surprised to see the familiar reaction between Gurtej and Baron as they bid farewell with the promise that the connection would not be broken again. It was the topic of hushed conversation on the plane journey back to Delhi.

To be continued.

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