We Almost Divorced Over His Mother’s Biryani
Our first year of marriage nearly ended because of unspoken expectations and the wrong amount of salt.
It sounds absurd. It was absurd. But the biryani was never really about biryani.
Imran’s mother made biryani every Sunday. When we married, the expectation was that I would take over. When my biryani tasted different (I’m Egyptian; she’s Pakistani), his mother stopped coming to dinner.
What saved us was an imam who understood marriage counselling. He made us list every unspoken expectation. Imran’s list was seventeen items long. Mine was twenty-three. We’d married each other but expected to live in our parents’ marriages.
We’ve been married nine years now. His mother brings her biryani. I make my koshari. Imran does the dishes.