The visit

I was surprised at my visit home. I think my mum must have had a talk with my father, as he remained fairly civil throughout our interactions. He even acknowledged me when I said hello to him, which is an improvement.

The worst I got was my mum asking me to go on pilgrimage to Mecca with them, en route to Pakistan. She was insistent, saying, you’re a Muslim and it’s something you have to do, to which I said, I’ll do it when I want, and why are we arguing over something which isn’t that important? She said as their daughter it was my duty to take them to Mecca and help them there, but as they’ve been on pilgrimage countless times and as a Muslim you only have to do do it once in your life, her argument, as I pointed out was redundant. She eventually let it go, although she was annoyed and said I wasn’t a good daughter, or words to that effect.

Luckily my parents had been invited to lunch at my cousins house, so I used this as my excuse to leave. They dropped me at Sameena’s house, when I got out of the car my father didn’t say goodbye, but I was so relieved my visit was almost over I didn’t care.