Echoes Of The Heart

chapter#10

UMAR'S POINT OF VIEW

So this time it was I who called mom. I knew it would be very difficult to convince her. I knew that she had dreams about her daughter in law like all the Pakistani mothers but I couldn't do anything about it. I was in love. And that was all I knew. Katherine asked me to marry her and I couldn't say no to her and said yes. Upon this she asked me to meet her parents and so I did. The wanted to talk to my parents before we got engaged and I was about to tell my mother about it. She picked up the phone. Her voice was sleepy. I think I called a little late.

"How I are you mom?" this time I was the one who asked this question.

"I'm fine. Is everything ok? You usually don't call at this time." She sounded worried.

"Yes, everything is fine. I just wanted to give you good news."

"Yeah I'm waiting." Came the prompt reply.

"I'm getting engaged." I said in a low voice. I was even a little worried about her reaction.

"What?" she sounded surprised.

"Yeah I'm getting engaged to a girl named Katherine."

"What? You are getting engaged to a Christian?"

"Yeah so what?" I knew she would ask about this.

"SO WHAT? You are a Muslim. Have you forgotten it?" she sounded worried.

"No, obviously I've not forgotten this.... But I guess you have forgotten that a Muslim is allowed to marry a Christian as they are also the people of book." I told her all that I knew.

"But you know our family. They will create a fuss about it and I will have to answer a million questions." She started crying.

"But we are not supposed to care about the people mom. Allah has permitted to do this, so why should we care about them." I didn't know what to say upon this anymore moreover when she started crying I got even more confused.

"Ok... at least stop crying so, that I can make my point clear." I was feeling annoyed now.

"There is no point to be made clear. You cannot get engaged and that is my final decision about this." She said in a loud voice.

"This is not something about you. This is my life and I will make the decisions. Plus I don't think that I am even doing something wrong." I got really angry now but I tried to keep my voice calm.

"Ok than you can do whatever you want." and with that she cut the call.

I don't know what I did wrong. I only wanted to get engaged with a girl I liked.

I felt like crap. I lied down on the mattress and closed my eyes. I felt really tired.

I woke up and felt really dizzy. I realized that I had not taken my dinner last night. I took my breakfast quickly and went to pick Katherine.

She was having breakfast when I reached there.

"You are late today." She said looking at me with dreamy eyes.

"Yeah I was a little tired last night so I slept for a little long." I said sitting next to her.

"Why? What did you do last night without me?" she said smiling. She had dimples and I loved them. I couldn't resist kissing her on the cheek.

"Nothing without you. I just had a bad talk with mom." I said looking down.

"Did you tell her about us?" she said looking worried.

"Yeah" I felt ashamed.

"No problem. Everything will be fine. We still have time you can talk to her again. I hope she understands this time. Now change that sad look and smile." She said smiling.

I smiled for her. I told her that I will meet her at lunch. I left for work after that.

I opened my laptop and had a mail about the interview with some writer. I called mam Caroline about it and also invited her on my engagement which was day after tomorrow. She seemed quite and gave one word answers to everything I said.

She reached at the office and was wearing a hijab. I got stuck. She was saying my name when I came out of my zone.

"Yes mam?" I said walking towards her.

"I want you to make all the arrangements for the interview our guest is about to arrive.

"Ok mam." I said and walked away.

"What happened to her?" one of my colleagues said.

I don't know why but I felt like defending her.

"I don't think you should be concerned about what happened to her." I said looking at him.

"Ohk dude. Relax." He said looking surprised.

I knew that she was going through something but I never thought that I would witness such a change in her sometime soon.

I went to her office to tell her that I had made the arrangements and that she could come now.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm a Muslim now. So, I want you to keep a check about where you order my food from now on." She told me looking at her laptop screen.

"Umm okay...Congratulations mam. I will keep a check." I said and walked out of the cabin.