End of June 2020

T minus 5 days

Omar

"What is the wrong with that plan?", Sehr asked me immediately, sounding a little offended.

"For one...how are we going to pull it off?", I asked my sister, still shaking my head at the crazy plan she and my sister-in-law had come up with.

Maliha chimed in now, confirming my suspicion that these two had conspired to thwart any objection that I may have to their 'Plan'.

"Omar bhai, if you can just convince your mom and dad to be on-board, Sehr and I will take care of arranging everything. We are offering you free international event planning services. Come on...give us some credit"

I mean, if I really thought about it, this was probably the fastest way for me to be with Madi. And I didn't mean just be with her in terms of everyone accepting us as a couple. I meant be with her as in feeling her softness as the last thing I did before I closed my eyes at night, and seeing her beautiful face first thing in the morning when I opened my eyes again.

Aaah...I need to stop thinking of Madi in that way...and I need to get married to her asap!

"Fine, but I have to talk to Madi first...", I replied to them, as both simultaneously squealed in delight before they hung up.

I checked up on Abu, who had made steady progress over the last couple of days since he had been using the BiPAP machine. He was sleeping peacefully, his oxygen levels had looked good and were hovering in the 90-94% range, which was much better than last week. Satisfied, that Abu would not need me in the next half an hour, I slipped away to my old room which as I had learnt was about the only place, other than bathrooms, where my mom would not barge in without knocking first.

I swear, the concept of privacy is non-existent in desi households sometimes!

It was early morning for us in Karachi, and would have been late evening in Chicago, when I called Madi.

"I was just thinking about you...", she said in her sweet voice.

"Thinking about me as the intern...oorrr...as the guy you are head-over-heels in love with?", I pried. I thought about her all the time, and wasn't shy about telling her that, but she hadn't been so forthcoming.

She laughed softly, making me wish that I was sitting next to her, so I could watch those adorable freckles dance on her sculpted cheeks and catch that gleam in her eyes that she always had when she laughed at my jokes, however, terrible they were.

I miss her so damn much...I hope she accepts 'The Plan', otherwise I will go crazy over the next 6 months.

"Dr Khan, I have no idea what you are talking about. Who is head-over-heels in love with who?", she chuckled, "I was just looking over next month's call schedule for the second year residents. I hope your flight comes back without any delays, because I am not sure I will be able move around anyone else to cover your shifts"

Oh that is right...I will not be an intern anymore come July 1st!

"Uh..ok...", I had to admit, I felt a little disappointed that she had only ever admitted to thinking about me in work related things. Maybe I was just a boring guy, after all.

But then I remembered why I was calling her in the first place. I needed to make her mine asap, so I could show her I could be interesting too!

"Madi...I am actually calling because its seems that now that both our parents are on-board with us being married there is a plan to delay the wedding till after the pandemic, so we can have a proper celebration with both sides of the family in one place...", I was going to give her more details but she quickly cut me off.

"What??", she said loudly, making me nearly drop my phone, "No...absolutely not. We are not delaying this past the first week of August. And frankly that too is ridiculous. I don't understand why we have to wait for Moin's exams to finish and then Mama's cousin to come from Florida. This is our wedding...we should be able to have it when we want to"

I laughed, imagining her animated facial expressions as they must have gone from disbelief to indignation, "I thought you said you were not head-over-heels in love with me..."

"I lied...", she sounded annoyed, "I want to get married now. I have had enough of following the rules, and staying away from you. I want more than just talking..."

She suddenly stopped speaking, probably realizing what she had blurted out. I knew her cheeks would be a deep pink color right now, and her gaze would be lowered, or maybe her hand had flown up to cover those full, tempting lips.

I couldn't help smiling at what she had said, but I also didn't want her to feel embarrassed at something that was only natural. Neither of us were in this to just talk, so I offered her a solution that I thought she would like, "How about we get married in three days then...?"

Madiha

I was looking at resident schedules when he called, but I was also praying that his flight would not be delayed or cancelled. I could probably move around his first week on service in July if I had to, but what I could not do is bear to be on the opposite side of the world from him for even an extra day.

When I told him to go to Pakistan, I had never expected the constant emptiness and feeling of desolation that I had walked around with for the last almost 1.5 weeks. Initially, I told myself that I was just worried his parents would fill his head with lies against me, but then I realized that I just missed him so much I felt like I couldn't eat, drink or sleep till I heard his voice.

This was so different than I had ever imagined being in love would feel like for an independent woman like myself. I thought it would simply be a need for companionship, one I could easily do without if needed. Love wasn't supposed to make me feel like a clingy teenager, and have butterflies in my stomach everytime I saw his name on my schedule template, or when I thought about the way his voice sounded or the way he sometimes looked at me.

So, when I heard him say, "How about we get married in three days then...?", I pinched myself trying to make sure that I wasn't dreaming.

"In three days?", I asked to make sure I had heard him right, even though in my head I was already screaming: Qabool hai!! (I accept)

"Yes Madi! 72 hours from now..."

"But you won't even be in Chicago then", I reminded him, wondering if there was a change in his travel plans that he hadn't told me about.

"According to Sehr and Maliha's plan, we would have a Nikah while I am still in Karachi and you are in Chicago. And we would do this over Zoom"

"Over Zoom? Is that even legal? I have never heard of anyone doing that...", I mean, I was desperate to get married but not desperate enough to ignore the Islamic laws of marriage.

"Apparently it is, according to the research that our sisters did. As long as the Imam is satisfied that you are genuinely agreeing to this marriage, and you are ok with your father's brother who lives in Karachi as being your representative, and we have the two required witnesses in place, you and I don't have to physically be in the same city. And this way my parents will be a part of the Nikah, and we can have a small wedding celebration while I am still here"

With a raging pandemic and all the online tools that were available to us these days, that made sense to me. And honestly, I could not let myself believe that my religion which puts so much emphasis on simplifying things, would rather have us wait 6 months before getting married than using current technology**.

** I hope I am not offending anyone here as there may be different opinions on this. But from what I have read and the pandemic stories I have seen in media, Nikah over Zoom is legit and allowed in Islam, as long as there is no chance of fraud and/or coercion, and the proper requirements of witnesses etc. are met. You could argue that if Omar was going to be in Chicago soon anyway, they could have done a Nikah the old-fashioned way, even if without his parents. But this is a fiction, so roll with me 🙂. Don't take my word over a scholar though!

"Oookkkay...", I replied skeptically, "I don't think my Tayaa (dad's older brother) will have a problem with being my representative. But I will ask Papa to confirm this whole Zoom Nikah business, even though I am sure our sisters looked up legit resources"

This was good time to apply the 'trust but verify' rule. But then there was still the matter of a Valima, where the husband's family has to essentially feed people, and/or hold a wedding party. Plus, I knew my parents would want to do a small reception and Rukhsati as well, even though a Rukhsati is more of a traditional event where the bride is officially sent off with the groom by her family.

"We can have a joint reception the day I get back to Chicago, in your parents yard, with just a few people like we had originally planned", Omar said.

"Omar, that plan was for August...", I started to point out, but before I could finish my sentence he interrupted me.

"If our Nikah is done, I'm taking you home, Madi", his voice became dangerously deep and low, sending a shiver down my spine, "No matter what someone else says. You will be mine, and no one can take you from me"

The pre- madly-in-love version of me would have found his possessiveness problematic. I was not an object that he could pick up and 'take home'.

But now, his words and the way he said them were making my breath hitch and my pulse quicken. And despite the sudden rush of passion and desire that clouded my mind at that moment, I knew that even if my parents disagreed with Omar, I would not have the willpower to stay away from him. I wanted to be with him so badly, that I couldn't care less about formalities and cultural requirements as long as our obligation to God was fulfilled.

I could hear his breathing, heavier than usual, and I wondered if he had felt the same thing I did. But he was also one of the most respectful men I had ever met, so I wasn't surprised that when he spoke up again, his voice was calm and collected.

"Madi before you agree to the Nikah over Zoom, though, I just want to make sure you are ok with not having a real wedding. This is a once in a lifetime event for you, because I am never, ever, letting you go. So if any part of you wants the whole shebang with mehndi, and dholki, and multiple other wedding events, and all the excitement that comes with it. I'll wait. We can have the wedding that you've dreamt of once this pandemic is over. We don't have to rush this."

I didn't reply to him immediately, even though I knew exactly what my answer to his question was. I needed to pause, and let myself admire his thoughtfulness and kindness. I knew how much he had wanted to be with me. Yet, he was willing to put that aside, so that I could have my dream wedding. Could I have asked for a sweeter more considerate husband than that?

No...a resounding NO!

I didn't think I could love him more than I already did. But in that moment I wondered to myself if there was truly ever a ceiling to how much one person could love another. Especially, a person like Omar who had always put me and my needs above his own.

Again...the answer would probably be no!

"Omar...", my voice came out raspier than I intended, "I want to marry you as soon as possible. I am done being alone in this Godforsaken time. And who knows when the pandemic will actually be over"

His reply too was slow, and his words deliberate, and I imagined the smile that would have slowly lit up his face, when he said, "Ok Madi...then let's talk to our parents. We don't have much time left"

T minus 2 days

Omar

That day was finally here. The day that Dr Madiha Ahmed would become Dr Madiha Ahmed Omar. And the day that I could finally put my nightmares to rest.

It hadn't take long for either of us to convince our parents. And it certainly helped that our very vocal sisters had already prepped our parents on the possibility of having a Nikah over Zoom, and then a small joint reception in Chicago three days later.

My mom, mother-in-law and I had spent all of yesterday getting the emails of everyone of our family members that were in Pakistan, US and Canada, and then had compiled a list of those emails. The original plan was to invite the extended family on both sides to our virtual Nikah.

But then we soon realized that given the sheer size of Pakistani families Zoom would quickly reach its participant limit. The video conferencing platform wasn't exactly built to accommodate desi weddings during the pandemic.

So, instead we decided to limit the invites to the immediate extended family only, i.e. the grandparents and our parents' siblings plus their kids, on both sides of the family. And we planned to send an edited version of the recording to everyone else and mail them mithai, if they were in a country where it was possible to do that. With the smaller number of participants, we had made another bold decision.

We were going to get food delivered to their houses, in a coordinated fashion, so that after the Nikah we could all share a meal virtually.

I had balked at the whole idea of a Zoom wedding, I thought a Zoom Nikah was going to be complicated enough. Besides, not everyone was comfortable using Zoom, and I could only imagine the calls we would have to shield to fix connectivity issues in the middle of our Nikah. But Maliha and Sehr, convinced me otherwise.

"Omar bhai, literally every school going kid knows how to use Zoom...even in Pakistan!", Maliha had explained, "I have already checked, everyone in our side of the family lives in joint families and every household has someone who is familiar with Zoom. Besides I'll tell them to call me if something happens, and I can walk them through it"

"Omar same goes for our family. At the very least, even if they can't get on to Zoom, they will get a nice meal out of it and keep you both in their prayers", Sehr had chimed in, "We'll use FoodPanda in Pakistan, and DoorDash, GrubHub and Ubereats in the US and Canada. I've already picked out the menus and mapped out the delivery locations and the desi restaurants near to them. All I have to do is go on the respective apps and start to place the orders. I just need your credit card information and the the rest will be taken care of...don't worry"

I wasn't worrying...not really. I just didn't want this to get out of hand. But it really had seemed that between the two sisters and their virtual party planning expertise they had thought of everything. Apparently, they had also roped in Noor and Salman, as well as Maliha's husband. And all I really needed to do was to schedule a Zoom meeting for at least 2 hours at a time that was reasonable for both cities.

So, two nights ago Madi and I had gotten onto Zoom ourselves and picked out an evite, and with the Zoom meeting address added to it for 9:30 pm Karachi time, and 11:30 am Chicago time, sent it to almost 70 email addresses, representing about 40+ households.

It had been a bit of a déjà vu moment for me. My wedding to Noor had been planned at the last minute as well, with evites being sent a couple of weeks before the actual event, only for Noor to back out 5 days before the wedding.

But this time was different. This time the woman I was marrying had fought the world to be with me. Even when I had faltered for a moment, she had refused to accept any other destiny for us, because quite simply...we were each other's destiny.

"Ready? There is no turning back now, Madi", I had asked her when the 'sent' confirmation popped up on the screen that I was sharing with her.

I saw the small smile that crept across her lips when she had sighed and replied softly, "Omar, I've been ready since the moment we stood outside that train station in freezing cold"

I had smiled back at her, but hadn't said anything. Though I too remembered the exact moment I knew I wanted her, forever. Even if I tried to fight those feelings later.

One day I will tell her about that moment

For now, I tried to focus on what was left to do for the Nikah on my end, in Karachi. Sehr was dealing with the food being delivered to our relatives, but we had gotten some food catered at our house for the few guests we had invited and then were going to send the rest to neighbours and the families of the domestics workers at our home. My mom had insisted on decorating the house with lights, like we would normally have done for a wedding.

"Shaadi wala ghar lug na chahiye hai (It should like a wedding is happening in this house)", Ami was telling the catering company, when the nurse bought Abu out of the house for the first time in almost 3 weeks.

His breathing had become much better, and he hadn't required the BiPAP machine for the last couple of days now. He was still coughing and felt very weak, but for now he seemed to be on the mend.

"Omar, beta...thank you for including us in your wedding. Mujhe bohat khushi hai ke tum Nikah ke waqt hamaray saath ho gai. Aisay mokay phir nahi ayein ge. Kaash Madiha bhi hoti, leikan meri dua hai ke tum dono ko bohat saari kushiyaan milein (I am very happy that you will be with us at the time of Nikah. These moments will not come again. I wish Madiha was here too, but I am pray that the two of you get a lot of happiness)", my dad said as he motioned for me to sit next to him on the patio.

I didn't tell him this, but he seemed like a changed man after the ordeal he had been through. He had never really reached out to me, or spoken to me like a father before. He was always the 'boss', even at home and he had treated me and Sehr like we were his employees. He wasn't strict in the conservative sense, but we just never felt the paternal warmth from him that we needed as kids. And he had definitely never asked me to sit with him, unless it was to tell me how much of a disappointment I was.