"This is haram," Zahra Hamideh said as her classmate Richa Chuttani drew near, a cocky grin on her lovely face. Zahra felt her pulse quicken as Richa came toward her, and Zahra wasn't sure whether to kiss the cocky bitch or slap the shit out of her. I just might do both, Zahra thought, her eyes flitting over Richa's lithe yet curvy body. Richa looked great in a white and crimson Choli, the traditional feminine attire in deeply conservative Gujarat State.
"Zahra, come on," Richa said softly, and she took the other gal's hand and brought it to her lips. Zahra looked into Richa's eyes, and felt herself melting inside. Damn this Indian temptress for seducing me into haram things, Zahra thought, still fighting to resist the forbidden passions which Richa had awakened in her. When Richa's face drew close to hers, Zahra held her breath. After a lengthy hesitation, Zahra surprised herself by taking Richa's face into her hands and kissing her.
"First time kissing a gal," Zahra told Richa, grinning nervously, when they came up for air. Richa gently put her arms around Zahra's waist, embracing her. Slowly, gently, Zahra hugged Richa back, and then the two young women giggled. Richa kissed Zahra once more, and Zahra kissed her back quite passionately. It felt right, to embrace and to kiss. The passions they'd been denying themselves were the most natural thing in the world...
For weeks now, Zahra had been working with Richa Chuttani on the Special Industrial Project at Gujarat University's School of Architecture and Design, and things had grown tense between the two of them. Pairing Zahra with Richa had been Professor Patel's idea, and at first, both young women protested vehemently, pissed off at the idea of working together. When Alpha females meet in male-dominated environments like the School of Architecture and Design, they either team up or clash...
To say that Zahra Hamideh and Richa Chuttani came from different worlds would be an understatement. Zahra was born and raised in the City of Toronto, in the Ontario province of Canada. Zahra's father Ali Hamideh hailed from the environs of Hargeisa, Somalia, and her mother Eileen Carmichael was white, originally from the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the age of twenty one, after completing her bachelor's degree in commerce at Ryerson University, Zahra decided to explore the world.
Zahra had always been fascinated by Indian culture and learned to speak fluent Hindi from her friends and classmates back in the environs of Brampton. The young SomaliโCanadian Muslim woman should have known that interacting with a few South Asian folks in Brampton, Canada, and moving to an Indian university campus are two completely different things.
Upon enrolling for a semester at Gujarat University in the City of Ahmedabad, Gujarat State of India, the normally fearless Zahra Hamideh got more than she bargained for. Oh, the students and teachers at Gujarat University were friendly enough. Sure, Zahra stood out among them but they were usually nice to her. Nope, for Zahra, trouble came in the form of Richa Chuttani, the Indian gal with the angelic face and the kind of ass that tennis champion Serena Williams would envy.
At first, Zahra didn't know quite what to make of Richa, the tall and attractive but odd young Indian woman who stared hard at her whenever they ran into each other. There were a few foreigners at Gujarat University, mostly European students, with a smattering of Chinese and Arabs. Zahra was the only person of African descent. In fact, whenever Zahra went for a walk around the town of Ahmedabad, which surrounds the Gujarat University campus, she got stared at...a lot.
Zahra Hamideh is the kind of gal who stands out in a crowd. She's six-foot-tall, for starters, and curvy, with a caramel complexion, and golden brown eyes. Growing up in the City of Toronto, Ontario, Zahra knew she was unique, but being surrounded by such racial diversity made her feel quite comfortable. In the City of Toronto, interracial couples and their mixed-race sons and daughters are everywhere.
As the daughter of an African immigrant father and a white Canadian mother, Zahra might have stood out everywhere else but she was just another pretty face in the City of Toronto. Folks who were brown, black or yellow, or in some cases a mixture of all three were slowly starting to outnumber whites in the Greater Toronto Area. In the State of Gujarat's streets, however, Zahra felt like an alien...
"What are you thinking?" Richa asked Zahra as they lay in bed together. Zahra grinned and shrugged, simply savoring the moment. Richa flicked her tongue into Zahra's earlobe, causing the other gal to giggle. Richa Chuttani has known that she loves women ever since she could remember. Growing up, in order to figure out which ladies like ladies, all Richa had to do was look into their eyes. It was a strange, fascinating insight which Richa understood, but couldn't quite explain...