Re: Online Saga
.... continued from posts #1, 8, 17, 46, 68, 88, 128, 159, 175, 193, 210, 223, 237, 257, 288 & 323
Rohi made it to San Diego safe and sound. She called Ali immediately from the airport and expressed her feelings how she was missing him more than ever before. She wished if she could have stayed with Ali forever. She was making Ali weaker but he stood firm on his intentions. Ali was going through a roller-coaster ride that did not seem to be ending. Before Waheeda had left for New York, she introduced Ali to another Afghan girl whom she met here. The girl was living with her mother and brother. Both mother and daughter wore proper Hijab and seemed very religious. Waheeda liked the girl a lot and asked Ali to meet them at least once. Ali thought of it to be another mistake and did not want to get started on this route. Waheeda invited the lady and her daughter at Ali’s home anyway. Ali treated them very nicely but nothing more than a good host. He nicely told Waheeda that even though the girl appeared a perfect choice but he was not ready to get married again.
Ali’s mother was on her toes to get him married with someone she had liked in Pakistan. She talked more on the subject than eating dinner on dining table every night. Ali was getting tired of listening the same song over and over. He repeatedly told her that he was not ready for another marriage yet. But she was giving him all the reasons why he needed to get married. She told him that he could not take care of Ayesha as well as a woman could do it. She also told him that the girl she wanted Ali to marry was at the age where her parents could not wait for much longer. She wanted Ali to marry Lubna, his cousin who was daughter of his father’s sister. Though Ali’s mother was not in very good terms with her sister-in-law, Lubna’s mother, but she liked Lubna enough to put those differences aside. Ali reminded her about the reservation she had towards his aunt. He also told her that what was the guarantee that she would like Lubna and would get along with her if he had married her. His mom told him that she was sure that the girl would have fit in perfect and she would not care even if Lubna had not gotten along with her once married. One thing Ali had decided was to marry only the girl of his mother’s choice. He could have married with Rohi or the other Afghani girl but then had to deal with constant bickering of his mother. Besides he had failed in the love marriage that he had done on his own. Now he was going to accept an arranged marriage of his parent’s choice.
Irrum was doing well with her husband and Ayesha was feeling comfortable at home too. Irrum’s husband Kashif found a job as a salesman at some local company and started working. He was in the US on his visa free tourist entry and planned to do his adjustment of status as a permanent resident after doing court marriage with Irrum. For some reason, he had to go back to France before doing the court marriage. Upon his departure at the airport, during an exit interview, US Immigration officer found his business card on him. Upon officer’s inquiry, he replied that he had started to work as a salesman. The officer told him that he was not supposed to do any work while being in the US under a visa waiver program. He was told that he had violated US immigration law. He was allowed to return to his country but his violation was recorded in the immigration database.
After sometime, Kashif entered US again under the visa waiver program. He did the court marriage and then filed for adjustment of status. When he was called in for his immigration interview, his petition was denied to grant him permanent resident status based on the immigration violation he had committed. He was then ordered to leave the country within thirty days. This was another blow for Irrum. She desperately tried to file an appeal but nothing worked out. According to the immigration attorney they had hired, Kashif had to leave the US and then fight for a waiver. So Kashif left US and Irrum was left alone once again. Irrum had started working at a local school as a teacher. She faced a forced termination from her job when she hugged an eight-grader boy from her class. The issue got exploited and Irrum was told to resign from her job. She then found job at another school but could not stay there for very long either. She had to quit from that school, as she could not get along with the principal. She then started school to work on her master degree.
[RIGHT]..... to be continued[/RIGHT]