The Honeymoon is Over

We spent our honeymoon in Sri Lanka, but the days after we returned were taken up with the seemingly endless events my mother-in-law had planned for me to meet her relatives. For these, I had to dress up in the glitzy outfits she’d bought me as part of my wedding barri – the presents given to the bride by the groom’s family.

Before we left for our honeymoon, our friends and family had given us traditional gifts of salaami money at our valima, to help us build our new life together, and Naseem Aunty had held it for safekeeping. When we got back, we wanted to use the money to repay our credit cards after the honeymoon, and to put towards a deposit for a flat if we were to move out in the future. But when Juni reluctantly went to ask his mother for the money, he returned with the news that she wouldn’t be giving it to us.