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I am back amidst the coconut trees again. The place has changed a little bit. I see fewer coconut trees. New buildings have taken their place. But the rains are the same. The monsoon is just on its way out of here..

I saw the last of Riyadh on the 3rd of September. The problem that I was facing at work didn’t cause as much a problem for me as I feared it would. But then, I was lucky to leave before things had a chance to explode. And I don’t want to know what is happening there nowadays :-D. The flight back was largely uneventful. May be it was because we were flying at midnight and most of the passengers must have passed out after the free alcohol that was on offer. Yes, it was Air India again.

There was this little course I had to attend - a three-day marriage preparation course conducted by the Catholic Church in our region. It is compulsory for Catholics to attend this course; else they will not be permitted to marry!! So off I went for three days, back to school – but of a different kind.

The courses were interesting – sexual morality, family psychology, the 21st century family, the family and communication, and of course, a very interesting sexual anatomy and natural family planning among others. This last course was taken by a very nerdy looking doctor. He had come in towards the end of the second day and all of us were looking forward to end of day. I thought here was one course which could have been a really interesting one, and it was being taken by this dullard.

Appearances are always deceptive. The next 3 hours were amongst the best I’ve spent on a classroom bench. He started off on a very somber note with describing the male and female genitals, but when it came to talking about the sexual act, he was howlarious. He talked about the more normal sexual positions, about how a man should not go all ‘wham bam thank you ma’am’ , about how it was highly likely that the guy could ‘lose it’ in a few minutes or less, virginity, penis size, and a lot more. Most of the guys were laughing through this. But some of the girls were so embarrassed. Sex is such a taboo subject in our part of the country (most parts of the country really!) and here was a guy talking about it in such detail and that too with such distracting gestures and body movements!!! I am pretty much sure though, that everyone was paying a good deal of attention ;-)

I am in Trivandrum now till tomorrow... and on leave from Thursday onwards. My engagement is on this coming Saturday. The Saturday following that, the 29th, will alter my status forever. And, heck yeah, I can’t wait for that day to come :-)


Shain