Short story: Two way road

“You know I lost my virginity much later than people would usually think.” 

Padmaja told me as we sat around the waiting room waiting for Dr. Kashyap. She seemed lost in thought staring at the aquarium as she said it. 

I knew what she meant. First time I met her she was a virgin and it surprised me as well. I mean looking at her and her lifestyle you can’t tell she stayed away from sex for that long. Her friends often laughed at her, “Who are you saving it for you silly girl? Your knight in shining armour?” 

And some of her feminist friends categorically told her if she was saving her virginity for some man she is going to marry she is totally being a victim of patriarchy. They said, ‘virginity’ by definition is gender discrimination and she should never fall for it. Padmaja now agrees to this thought. Virginity and the hype around it is indeed a method of disrespectful objectification of women. 

But back then in her late teens and early 20s she didn’t care so much about either virginity or feminism. She just wanted her first time to be a nice time. She didn’t want it to be an open and shut case. Drop your pants and bang bang. She wanted the romance; she wanted to spend time with the man before she had sex with him, she wanted to take a moonlight walk holding hands to build up the excitement and all that. But things could never happen that way because she was never into a committed relationship.