*she speaks Bengali to her parents but I don't know how to write in Bengali without a dozen spelling mistakes so the writing will be in English
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As I sit at the dining table with my family, they continue to speak about boring work-related things I have no care for.
My siblings are all married and my mother has been going crazy trying to find me a good Muslim man to marry so I don't run off and get a boyfriend.
It's not like I would ever do that but she thinks I will.
"So Inaya, how's school?" My eldest brother Amir asks me and I nod. "It's going well. Just studying and doing homework."
My other brother Hamza laughs, "You study?"
"Hahaha you're so funny, I'm dying in my seat. Please, please dear brother say another joke." I say with a straight face and he sticks his tongue out at me.
"Inaya there's this man who is 23 years old and is looking for a wife." My mother tells me out of nowhere.
"Okay well good luck to him,"
"He's studying to be a doctor so he'll have money." Angelo is younger and already has money. Inaya, stop it.
"I'm studying to be a lawyer so I'll have money too," I reply but my mom rolls her eyes.
"He's tall. 6 foot." Angelo is 6 foot 7.
"He cares for his family." Angelo would die for his family. Why am I comparing every man to Angelo?!
"Amma, this man seems great but I'm only 20. I don't want to get married." Or at least to someone I don't love.
"Come on Inaya, he is a Muslim Bengali!" My sister tells me. That is when my thoughts stay silent.
"I think I'll have to pass. I told you I'll get married once I finish law school amma." I tell my mom.
"You'll be so old when you're done with school. No one would want to marry a 25-year-old. The younger you get married the higher the chances are of having kids." She says and I shrug.
"Amma I still have time. I'm only 20."
"YaAllah Inaya. There's a chance that I'll die next week and I'll die knowing that I didn't get my daughter married. Is that how you want me to die?! With sadness?" My mother is very dramatic sometimes. Yes, we don't know when we'll die but my mom is very healthy so I don't know why she's thinking about this.
"Baba, you don't agree with amma right? I'm only 20."
"We aren't looking Inaya but great men are hard to find so if one comes knocking on our door we'll have to let him enter." What the heck does that even mean?!
I heard a knock on my front door and I raise an eyebrow. "Is this the great man you are speaking so highly of?" I ask and my sister stands up.
"It's probably the owner of the building my health clinic is in. He lives far away from the clinic so I told him to drop the paperwork off here because the house is close to his office." Aaliyah tells us and goes to open the door.
