Say you’ll Wait for Me, A Memoir
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Every one of my extended family members from Pakistan were bound to a culture made up of feudal lords, a group of wealthy landowners who showed up one day to take everything away from me. Daniyal didn’t make a sound when a customs officer asked the driver to get out so he could inspect the vehicle. Daniyal's body was hidden inside a truck carrying international goods across the border. The oldest of three brothers spoke of paying a man from an agency large sums of cash to import him across the border illegally. I never thought to ask how Nadia's brother came to the promised land when we first met in a small town in Louisiana where I spent my childhood. Hidden inside a secret compartment, behind fold out seats in the back of a truck full of imported goods, Daniyal was eager to start a new life in the United States; holding his breath like I did in childhood when I was learning to swim underwater. A once humble boy from a village had always been fearless, never knowing when to come back up for air. “This is where our property starts and stretches out for miles.” Ayaan said. Say You'll Wait For Me Outline: Part 01: Life in Louisiana, Growing up Samantha Chapter 01: Returning to the Past Chapter 02: Labor Abuse and Side Effects Chapter 03: Failure and a Cab Ride Home Chapter 04: Religious Doctrine, When Things Fall Apart Chapter 05: Returning to the Past, Abuse and Indirection; Abdullah Part 02: First Introductions Chapter 06: Life in Faisalabad, Pakistan Chapter 07: Daniyal, The Guardian Chapter 08: Nadia, the Storyteller Chapter 09: Karachi, Counter terrorism Brother in law, Ayaan Chapter 10: Aaliyaa, The Caretaker Chapter 11: Rani, The Forgotten Sister Chapter 12: Oldest sister, Farah; Three Daughters and a Dream Chapter 13: A Man From Saudi Arabia Part 03: Things I Couldn't Say Chapter 14:Territorial Disputes Chapter 15: Beena, A Widowed Woman Chapter 16: Gay and Transgender Sovereignty Rights Chapter 17: Healthcare in Pakistan, Visiting Government Hospitals Faisalabad, Pakistan Part 04: Bad Parts Chapter 18: Rock Bottom Chapter 19: Earthquakes and Natural Disasters; Faisalabad, Pakistan Chapter 20: My Most Frightening Experience Part 05: Travel Diaries Chapter 21: Teaching at a Government School Faisalabad, Pakistan Chapter 22: Unforeseen Challenges Teaching English Faisalabad, Pakistan Chapter 23: Hussain, The Art Teacher Chapter 24 :Village Life Versus Life in a Progressive City Chapter 25: Chandra, My Most Enthusiastic Student Chapter 26: Meeting Umar Chapter 27:Friendships, Hired Help and Electricity Shortages Chapter 28: Rohan Chapter 29: Naima, The Artist Chapter 30: Political Riots, Christianity and Islam
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Being the owner of vast stretches of land in certain areas of Pakistan meant you could marry the most beautiful girl of any nearby village, a devout Muslim woman from an affluent family born of a traditional Hindu caste and the eldest daughter of a neighboring landlord. Looking back in writing this now, I think about all the people who were supposed to care about me who had bad intentions related to why they claimed to welcome me as an American, never bothering to fill me in as to the reasons why I traveled to Pakistan. I found myself in a strange new land left to raise Sameer and Asad without a father. Thrust into a world of strangers disguised as well-meaning relatives extending a hand to greet me as a foreigner from the United States, I found myself standing in the middle of a deserted field trying not to see Daniyal in new relatives offering flowers and Muslim prayers of protection in Urdu. I was no longer called by my birth name Samantha but morphed into a Pakistani woman known only by my Muslim name, Kasra Say You’ll Wait for Me is my first book based on a true- to life experience of meeting and marrying an immigrant from a rural village area of Ganish, Pakistan. As I struggle to fit in with a large, eccentric joint family as a foreigner from Louisiana who knows next to nothing about Pakistani customs, haphazard attempts at blending in with my Muslim family turn into a series of cultural blunders and missteps. Secretive in-laws appear as well-meaning family members offering Muslim prayers, revealing a series of family betrayals and secrets surrounding an ongoing legal case in Karachi, Pakistan involving the acquisition of ancestral property. A territorial dispute in Karachi, Pakistan spirals out of control in the form of an ongoing family feud. What remains of my time in a rural village area of Ganish is a true story comprised of people who lied to me, and a broken promise of a happy life in a foreign country that existed in a past memory. The beginning of our financial issues began more than five years ago over a valuable piece of property in Karachi. The most tragic part of my real-life experience about marrying a Pakistani wasn't that years later I had come to find out my immigrant husband's ancestral land had been stolen from him and he could no longer return to his birth country. I prayed for the land to be returned to its rightful owner. Say You’ll Wait for Me