Two couples residing between Delhi and Paris swap partners to stay happy

Life presents strange situations. And some responses are even stranger. People find a way to exist in their own peculiar ways. Personal life is different from the one professed in public. Probity could just be a projection. Modern love stories have imbibed technology to their advantage, and it can be a kinky tool. In this environment, emotional needs are often sacrificed at the altar of practicality.

Janvi is a 32-year-old Indian woman pursuing a PhD in humanities from a leading university in Paris. She has thick curly hair on her radiant face. Before she left for Paris earlier this year, she had started dating a French national, Boris, 5 years her junior. The passion quotient between them is high. Boris stayed back in Delhi working for a multinational while his girlfriend went to live in his hometown to pursue higher studies.

In Delhi, Boris shares a spacious three-bedroom apartment in Defence Colony with two French girls. One of his flatmates, Lucie, is dating his old college pal Alexander who’s based in Paris. Lucie will go back to Paris after living in Delhi for a year at the end of November. There’s an uncanny coincidence here, Alexander lives in the same locality in Paris as Janvi. Alexander helped Janvi settled down in Paris and they too have become good friends.

The long-distance relationship was testing. Things were not working out. Boris was contemplating a breakup with Janvi. “There are so many distractions in the city,” he says. A white guy with a muscular frame and curly blonde hair who likes to party till late has many takers in Delhi. Janvi could empathise with Boris, she was attracted to Alexander, something she told Boris about.

This happened on a warm night in April. Boris returned late from a party. Lucie was watching a late-night show on television in the living room, sipping beer. They got talking and a heartfelt conversation leads to lovemaking on the couch. Both of them told their respective partners about what transpired the next morning. Alexander and Janvi had mixed feeling about it, they did feel cheated. In Paris, they met to talk about it the following day, consoled each other, but were pleased that their partners were at least not secretive about their unfaithful conduct.

All four got together and discussed the whole issue threadbare on Skype. It was Janvi who asked: How would Boris feel if she sleeps with Alexander? Boris joked, “I’d be happy my love, you’ll be in safe hands.” A joke led to a serious argument. Alexander proposed that he’d like to be with Janvi officiating as Boris to keep her happy. And he’d expect Boris to return the favour.

Lucie was more matter-of-fact about it. “You guys want to swap your girlfriends?” “If you girls are willing to swap your boyfriends,” Alexander was quick to respond. They agreed on the condition that it’s going to be a temporary arrangement.

They all had a good time. They were jealous and curious at the same time. So Lucie suggested that they should make love while being connected on Skype so they are visually in the same space. Of course, you can’t make love and watch others making love on a computer screen at the same time. So they took turns, one pair watched when the other had sex. Sometimes they imitated, sometimes they demonstrated.

“It felt like I was performing,” says Janvi about the whole experience, “I’m not judging, it’s just a feeling that I was confronted with.” But the experience was not particularly bad or good, just convenient. Alexander distinguishes lovemaking and with having sex. This dalliance has actually cemented their relationship, as a couple and also as friends. The four are a very closely-knit unit.

In August, Janvi was in Delhi for two weeks. Alexander also flew in for a week. They all stayed at Boris and Lucie’s place in Defence Colony. They were back with their respective partners. Three days before Alexander was to go back, all four had group sex after a sumptuous lunch. They were talking about how it felt watching one’s own partner making love to a friend. And now that they were together why not give it a try.

They liked it. Boys did things to each other. Girls watched them as if they were “sex slaves” as Janvi puts it. It was a sort of a frenzy, four were embued by the same spirit. This was their first foursome or group sex experience. That experience grew in them and they repeated it many more times before Alexander took a flight back to Paris in the wee hours of a wet monsoon morning. That night they didn’t sleep and made love like there was no tomorrow.

They will all be together again during Diwali. There will be a repeat, in all likelihood. They call themselves a double-couple. And all four engage with each other sexually, rather indiscriminately, gender is no bar. Of course, their families don’t know about it.

Janvi will never reveal this aspect of her love life to her parents. She has no plan to get out of this arrangement either, as long as it lasts. They feel marriage or relationship is not about ownership of their partner. “A well-ventilated room is a healthy room,” Janvi says.

However, Boris is turning out to be the weak link. He wants no more of experimentation. He’s emotionally attached and craves for carnal pleasure with his friend Alexander. Alexander doesn’t take his intimacy with Boris seriously. “This arrangement is need of the hour but things will change,” says Alexander while stressing, “It’s an arrangement and not a relationship.”