Re: Online Saga
....continued from the previous posts #1, #8 & #17
Ali went back to New York and now was missing Irrum more than ever. They talked a lot on the phone all the time. Irrum had once told Ali in the beginning of their relationship that she was previously engaged with another guy named Wasif who had seen her at some party and had asked her mom for her hand. She told that even though she had not liked the guy but her mom went ahead and did their engagement. She had told Ali when they first met that she was trying to come out of that engagement, as she had not liked the guy. In fact Ali was somewhat uncertain if that was going to happen or not. He had fallen in love with her yet was still cautious to have his hopes high in terms of seeing Irrum as his future wife. He did not like the fact that he was getting involved with someone else’s fiancée. But sometime in November, Irrum told Ali that her engagement with Wasif was over. Ali felt relieved over this but at the same time it created so many questions in his mind. This was one of those things that did not make sense to him that how could an open-minded lady have imposed a much older guy on her eighteen-year-old daughter? He did question her but was never satisfied with her answers. Again he trusted her just because he was in love with her.
In March 1993, just before the spring break, Irrum told Ali that she was likely to go to California during her spring break. Ali’s first question was “where and why?” She gave him explanation how she had known these two brothers who were very close friends of Wasif and they were like brothers to her and they had sent her a ticket as her birthday present. They were insisting her to come visit them to California and they did not care even though her engagement with Wasif was over. She also told Ali that she did not want her mom to know about this. Ali once again all confused could not see any logical sense in this but just remained quiet. She went ahead and went to California during her spring break while making Ali all upset over it. He did not like want her to go but could not do much about it. While Irrum was gone to California, he however went ahead and called her mom and asked her if she knew about those two brothers in California. She first said no and asked why he was asking? Ali told her that Irrum had gone to California to see them. Mom became curious to know, “when and why?” Ali told her whatever he knew from Irrum. Her mom unconvincingly told him yes she knew them. Ali could have felt the sadness in her and sensed that she wasn’t comfortable talking about it. Irrum did manage to call Ali a couple of times while she was in California. She told him how she was missing him so much and wished if he was there with her.
When Irrum came back from California, she started calling Ali as frequently as before. She was displeased with him when she found out that he had told her mother about her California trip. But she did not make big deal out of it. A couple of times she asked him if she could go to some party at a night club with her roommates. He did not like the idea and said no to her. She became quite upset on that then asked her roommates to talk to him in order to convince him to let her go with them. Ali wanted to see Irrum always happy and not upset, so in the consequence he became softer so told her that she could go.
Few weeks after that spring break, Ali was at his office working when he got a call from some strange guy who asked if this was Ali, “Yes” was the reply from Ali. The guy said, “Ali you probably don’t know me, this is Wasif. Do you have few minutes to talk about? I have something interesting to tell you.” Ali was all shocked, as he had heard about him from Irrum. He only knew that Irrum was engaged to him and then the engagement was broken. Ali told Wasif if he could call him back later in the evening because he was busy at work. Ali was also not sure what to talk about especially because it was going to be all related to Irrum. He called Irrum right away but got her answering machine. He left her the message to call back as soon as possible and mentioned about the call from Wasif. Wow that was probably like a bomb blast for Irrum. She was desperately trying to reach Ali but somehow could not get him. She kept calling him and left messages begging him not to talk to Wasif if he called again. That made Ali more curious to find out what was going on. She was finally able to reach him and was so curious to know what had Wasif told Ali. Ali told her that they had not talked much and Wasif was going to call him back later. She said, “Please Ali, tumhein meri qassam, Wasif say koi baat nahin karna. He is a big liar” Ali said ok but asked her to tell him the truth. She said she was going to tell him all about if he did not talk to Wasif. At the same time, she was calling Wasif to beg him not to talk to Ali anymore. Later on Ali’s phone rang and it was Wasif on the other side.
[RIGHT].....to be continued[/RIGHT]