"Hmm, I feel good," Dina Dhavalikar said, and she sighed happily while in the arms of her lover, Ismail Woldense. Tenderly, Dina stroked Ismail's face, and gazed adoringly at her lover. Over the past few months, Ismail had become quite dear to Dina, who surprised herself and many other people by falling in love with him. Nowadays, they live together in a one-bedroom apartment in the West end of Ottawa. To say that they came from different worlds would have been an understatement...
"Amen to that," Ismail replied, and he flicked his tongue over Dina's earlobe, causing her to purr with contentment. This brother makes me feel ten years younger, Dina thought happily. Ismail got up and headed to the washroom, and Dina heard him lift the toilet seat and take a whiz, as he called it. Dina sat up on the bed, her thoughts swirling with the memory of all the fun and wicked things Ismail did to her last night...
If someone told Dina Dhavalikar a year ago that she would be having a relatonship with a young man from Eritrea, she would have laughed. How times have changed, Dina thought. Rising from the bed, she glanced at her reflection in the old-fashioned wall mirror and smiled. Five-foot-ten, curvy, with dark brown skin, a slightly angular face and long dark hair, Dina had known from day one that she wasn't the ideal of beauty.
"You look beautiful just the way you are," Ismail told Dina, the very first time he met her. They were on the same shift at a Tim Horton's located in Kanata Centrum, in the West end of metropolitan Ottawa, Ontario. Dina smiled politely at Ismail and thanked him for the compliment, then focused on her work. As Dina tried to do her job, she noticed that Ismail kept staring at her. What did he want?
At first, Dina was puzzled by Ismail's behavior, then she began to feel a bit uncomfortable. She simply could not fathom why Ismail was always gawking at her. Dina looked up Ismail online, and learned some interesting things about him. According to his Facebook, Ismail was born in the City of Agordat, Eritrea, and raised in the City of Montreal, Quebec. He came to Ottawa a couple years back to study finance at the University of Ottawa and has been there ever since...
Whenever Ismail caught Dina alone, he would compliment her and flirt with her. Most men barely glanced at her most of the time. Dina's Indian male co-workers had white girlfriends for the most part. Hell, one of the Indian guys Dina worked with had a black girlfriend. The male gaze seldom lingered on Dina back in India, where only women who adhered to Western beauty standards were considered desirable. Dina noticed that most African men dealt with African women, or with white women. What did Ismail, a man from the Horn of Africa, want with her?
Born in the City of Vasco De Gama, in the Goa region of India, Dina Dhavalikar grew up in a loving but impoverished family. Dina's parents Sudin and Gita Dhavalikar were farmers, and wanted more out of life for their only daughter. Dina had always been gifted when it came to mathematics and sciences. Brilliant and ambitious, Dina won an international scholarship to study at the prestigious Brunel University in Uxbridge, West London, in the United Kingdom.
Dina's life changed the day she set foot in the City of London, England. Like a lot of former British subjects, the City of London held a special place in Indian hearts, and Dina was no exception. She'd always been fascinated by London, its history and what it had to offer. Many of her fellow Indians spoke fondly of New York, Berlin, Johannesburg, Toronto and even Tokyo, but Dina yearned to live in London. Seizing her chance, Dina enrolled at Brunel University, where she earned a Civil Engineering degree, graduating in 2016.
At the age of twenty three, Dina Dhavalikar thought she had the world on a string. She figured that with a degree from an accredited British university, she would be looked on favorably by the United Kingdom's immigration authorities. Dina's parents encouraged her to build a new life for herself in the United Kingdom. Dina was stunned when her application for permanent residence in the UK was refused, and she was ordered to return to Goa, India, or face severe repercussions.
Desperate to build a new life for herself in the West, Dina looked far and wide for a solution. America wasn't friendly to non-white immigrants anymore, so that left Canada and Australia. Dina heard good things about Australia, but it's Canada who accepted her claim. That's how Dina ended up moving to Ottawa, Ontario. She thought she'd have a great life and a wonderful career due to her education, drive and ambition. Instead, Dina ended up working at Tim Horton's...and meeting Ismail.
