Silently Falling in Love: Again (Edited)

Chapter 35 - Eid Mubarak

Anjali – Fall 2007

"Raj come on get ready. We will be late for Ali & Salma's Eid party!"

"Why do we have to go to the Eid party, it's not like we're Muslim? We're not breaking a fast. Can't we go out to dinner instead?"

"Raj come on. Ali is like a brother to me and they always come over to celebrate Diwali even though they're not Hindu. What's the big deal?"

"There's no alcohol. What kind of party doesn't have alcohol?"

"Raj, now you're making stupid excuses. We go to plenty of parties that don't have alcohol. Why do you always give me a hard time when we go to Ali's and Salma's?"

He sat down on our bed and then fell back on it.

"Truthfully?"

"Yes, truthfully, what is your issue? You know Ali and Salma are important to me."

"I don't like Ali."

I stared at Raj, shocked. Finally, I asked, "Why?"

"That could take all night to explain. Let's leave it at I don't like the guy."

"No, you can't drop a bomb like that and not explain."

"I think it's odd how close the two of you are. If he weren't Muslim would he have asked you out? I had female friends in college, but I never knew the details about my female friends the way he knows about you."

"We tie Rakhi on each other every year, he's like a brother to me. How can you even think he'd have any romantic interest in me?"

"Have you ever thought maybe he had you tie a Rakhi on him so he wouldn't get tempted by you? He's a traditional Muslim boy from Pakistan and the eldest son; he'd never go against his parents. Tradition plays a higher priority over passion. I don't like it when you're with him. Call me old-fashioned. A husband doesn't like the thought of his wife with another man or another man having such a keen interest in his wife."

"You're reading too much into this."

"And you're naïve; you don't understand how the world works," he said as he kissed my forehead.

I stood and stared at him silently. The jealous streak was new. I held my breath; he had nothing to worry about regarding Ali. That didn't mean he shouldn't be jealous, just not about Ali.

"Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be ready. I know you want to attend." Raj sighed and got up from the bed.

An hour later, we arrived at Ali and Salma's home.

I greeted Ali first, "Eid Mubarak."

"Thanks Anjali, Eid Mubarak." Ali hugged me back and shook Raj's hand.

Once inside, I mingled and munched on the delicious appetizers Salma had spent days cooking.

As I shoved a kebab in my mouth before speaking to Ali, "Salma has outdone herself this year. You're lucky you found her."

"Yeah, I'm lucky I found her, and it doesn't hurt that she can cook so well."

I sipped water and worked up the nerve to ask Ali, "What if Salma hadn't been Muslim would you have married her?" I had to ask because I couldn't get Raj's comments out of my head.

"Of course not."

I looked at Ali shocked. "But you said you loved her."

"I love her and one thing I love about her is that she is Muslim, and we share the same culture."

"But I remember how smitten you were when you met her at the hospital. It was like serendipity that you met her even though she worked in a different department at the hospital."

Ali looked at me funny. "My cousin's wife knew Salma and told me about her. Anjali, I researched her background before I ever asked her out. I would never have made the first move if I didn't think she would fit into my life and my family would approve."

"I never knew you went through such a detailed background check on Salma. I thought it was a romantic love story of a serendipitous meeting at the hospital."

"Why are you so shocked? Come on, you have Raj. It's not like you ever would have married Josh."

"I would have if he had asked," I responded, although shocked to hear Josh's name after so many years.

"But he asked, and you said no."

"I was engaged to Raj." I defended.

"If it was love, why didn't you break it off with Raj and get back with Josh? I'll tell you why because Josh wouldn't have gotten the cultural stuff that Raj gets. Raj was there for you when your mom needed you last year. He knew to propose and marry you after dating for a short while. You didn't accept Josh's proposal because the passion may have been there but what about all the other stuff that makes a marriage go smoothly?"

I couldn't respond. There were so many things that went into making a marriage go smoothly, but not all of it was cultural. I'm not sure I would have characterized my marriage as smooth.

"You didn't expect Josh to marry you at 21, did you? That's not in his culture. His culture says go out and sow your oats discover yourself before committing yourself. You were ridiculous to even think he could marry you out of college. You were applying your Indian cultural expectations on someone who doesn't even know what they are. That's why you were disappointed. It wasn't fair to him."

"You have three daughters. Are you going to let them marry whoever they want?"

"No. I will raise them to marry Muslim."

Stunned before I could respond, Salma called Ali for help. What if Raj was right? Was I really that naïve? What else had I been naïve about?