"Mister, I don't approve of your relationship with my daughter Anisha," said Farrokh Khan, and the curvaceous Pakistani Muslim matriarch looked at Benjamin Hanover haughtily. The tall, dark and handsome young Afro-Caribbean student stroked his goateed chin thoughtfully, wondering how to best answer such a harsh statement. Smiling like the Devil himself, Benjamin looked at Farrokh and nodded soberly.
When Benjamin met Anisha Khan while studying at the University of Ottawa, they became fast friends due to their shared interests in Manga comics and of course their major, Civil Engineering. The fact that Benjamin Hanover was born and raised in the City of Kingston, Jamaica, mattered very little to Anisha Khan, for the young Pakistani-Canadian Muslim woman was quite open-minded. Too bad the same couldn't be said for her dearest mother, Farrokh Khan...
On that fateful day, Benjamin Hanover came by the Khan household on Booth Street, west of downtown Ottawa, having finished a shift at the nearby gas station. Anisha Khan wasn't answering her cell phone and he came by to check up on her, since Benjamin was in the neighborhood. Instead of being greeted by the tall, slender and friendly Anisha, Benjamin found himself face to face with her chubby and sour-faced, decidedly disapproving mother...
"My dearest madam, your daughter Anisha is just a friend, besides, I like my women older," Benjamin said gently, and he pulled out his cell phone and showed Farrokh his wallpaper. Farrokh took the cell phone from him and saw the picture of Benjamin locking lips with an older woman of the South Asian persuasion. The look of pure shock on Farrokh's face when she looked up from the phone was to die for...
"Benjamin, get serious, am I supposed to actually believe this is your girlfriend?" Farrokh asked, smiling derisively. Farrokh looked at Benjamin with a mixture of surprise and disapproval, and perhaps something else. Women from her part of the world always underestimate me, Benjamin thought slyly, remembering all the gorgeous Asian ladies-of-a-certain-age whom he routinely bedded. Let the games begin...
"My beloved Noor and I have been seeing each other for a year, and she says I've made her the happiest since her divorce," Benjamin said, matter-of-factly. Farrokh looked at Benjamin curiously, and he could see the wheels turning in her lovely head. Like a lot of women from Southern Asia, Farrokh was mired in tradition and didn't realize that in a place like the City of Ottawa, Ontario, the rules between men and women were indeed different.
