International Love

Our wedding was to take place among friends and family. As far as I was concerned, because all of his immediate family was back in India. I had been out of the country many times and I was willing to travel and get married there if he so desired. I was nervous when I said hello to his mother for the first time. All this time, Amir had been the interpreter for all of us. My hands sweating, I said "hello". I heard instant giggles as If a child would laugh while watching a Saturday morning cartoon.

Was I joke to them? I asked myself. Amir just laughed with them in unison when I said hello. It felt like I was the inside joke. His mother replied, "hello". I gave the phone back to Amir, "here, you interpret please". His parents expressed how they want for us to come there to be married.

Amir explained to me that he grew up always believing he would get married in India, until he met and fell in love with an American. I would repeat the opposite to him. We both laughed and realized that it didn't matter if we were inside Taj Mahal, as long as we were together.

The plane ride was so long. I remember arriving at Heathrow to transfer, and though to myself, I just endured a six hour flight, now I have to wait 12 hours for our connections. We never really gave too much thought of our interracial relationship until now. Amir never told his parents that I was an African American. My parents were both born in Nigeria and I was born in the states. Would they accept me? He waited until we boarded the connection to tell me the news. All this time, I felt he'd addressed this issue. I was shocked, angry and confused as to why he failed to communicate the race difference.

He said his parents always told him as a child, that what class or country you came from didn't make a difference as long as you were a good and moral human being. I laughed aloud when he repeated that statement on the plane. A part of me wanted to wait at a local hotel but I could never face myself in the mirror if I did exactly that.

He was Bengali and we met and fell in love our sophmore year at MIT. We both had plans of pursing our Masters, but would wait until we married. I remember the feeling in the pit of my stomach when the plan landed. It felt like I was just being introduced to society. I could even recall the first time someone gave us a dirty look because of our race difference. The silent stare that spoke aloud the thoughts in the back of their inquiring minds.

A driver would take us to our final destination. I remember seeing so many children and how they all looked so serious. People everywhere, busy trying to get to there final destination. The driver couldn't help but ask Amir,who is this woman?. He laughed and answered "my fiance'". He looked at me and in my mind I thought,"I will experience this at a deeper level once we arrive at his parents house".

I remember Amir asking me to close my eyes. I cooperated and somehow wished I was back in our lovely one bedroom flat. When I opened my eyes, I felt like I had astro projected into a fairy tale. The house was gorgeous, it reminded me of my grand father's compound back in Nigeria.


Amir met all of my family, he even spoke to my grandmother in Nigeria. They were somewhat surprised that he was from India, but they feel in love with his charm and wisdom. We both were in our senior year and he felt that his parents would approve if he'd accomplish graduating from college before getting married.

They greeted me with flowers and sweets. They smiled and did not looked surprise that I was African American. We later discovered Amir's best friend had informed the family a while back, expecting to cause confusion. They supported the words they told him as a child and embraced me.

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful! There are no words to express the Love I felt that special day. To be carried in to greet Amir and to become his wife was as great as the day our daughter was born.