She sat on the couch and folded her arms. “I don’t want to speak to him,” she said in Punjabi.

Neeraj knew his wife beyond the wall she was presenting. He walked downstairs and opened the door for Omkar as he approached. “Hello Papa,” Omkar said, walking through the door.

Neeraj contained his relief at seeing Omkar standing before him perfectly OK, masked by his stern demeanor. “Your mother is upstairs,” he said.

Omkar walked up the stairs and saw her sitting on the couch. She defiantly turned away from him as punishment for what he had put them through. “Mama, I need to tell you something.” She didn’t answer.

Neeraj sat down beside her and spoke for her. “What is it, Omkar? What is so important that you have to treat us in this way?”

Although his mother showed no sign of yielding, Omkar began to speak. “You have always told me that a happy marriage is one where both partners want to be together. Otherwise, it feels like death. Mama, if I was with anyone but Aria, it would feel like death. I am not doing this to be funny. I am not doing this to disrespect you or Papa. I am doing this because I love her. I want to marry her some day.

“You also always tell me that there is no place that will give me as much comfort as my own home will. But Mama, that isn’t true. The comfort that I feel when I’m with her is better than anything I have ever felt. How can that be true unless she is my home, Mama? I love you. I don’t want to see you upset like this. But I need you to love what I love. A learned person is honored, except in their own house. I have learned something in this country. I have learned that a life without the person that you love is no life at all and it doesn’t matter if that person you love is black or white or brown or a man or a woman. This is not respected in this house, but it should be. Don’t make me choose between you and the person that I love. Mama, you can’t say that you love me and ask me to choose.”

Neeraj’s arms were folded across his potbelly. “Omkar, look at what you are doing to your mother,” he said.

“I’m not doing anything to Mama. She is doing this to herself. Love should be celebrated and she’s acting like somebody just died.”