Page 91 - James Caan - The Real Deal

8 · Aisha

Asian community is very concerned about ticking boxes – your
sect, your religion, background, country of origin, family – but
even though those boxes were utterly irrelevant to me, my dad had
really strong views on each one of them.
By this point, Aisha knew how important my father was to me,
and she made a real effort with him. She is naturally a very tactile
person, and in our house this was very unusual: I had never really
seen anyone hug my father, but the remarkable thing was he didn’t
back off when she hugged him, which was weird to see. The family
really took to her – I think they were all intrigued because she was
so modern and well spoken – but because it was only the first time
they’d met her no one was going to give me their opinion of her.
Except, of course, my dad.
‘It won’t work out,’ he told me afterwards.
He thought she was too strong, had too many opinions and
knew what she wanted. My dad’s perception was that I would
need somebody domesticated, who would stay at home with the
kids, very much the traditional wife – and that’s just not Aisha.
My dad’s observations about Aisha were absolutely correct, but
where he was wrong was in thinking that was what I would want
in a wife. For me to marry a woman who wasn’t strong was an
absolute no-no: it just wouldn’t have suited my character.
As the months went on, my dad started to change his opinion
about Aisha, and it was clear he was really responding to her. She
would sit in his lap – something not even my sisters did – and when
she was around the whole family dynamic changed. She had
completely charmed him, and his scepticism about our future
began to subside.
When I had met Aisha’s family, obviously we’d had the boutique
to talk about, but the day came when Aisha told me that her dad
wanted to talk to me, and it wasn’t about the business.
I found her dad really quite charming, and it was nice that he
wanted to look out for his daughter and check that I wasn’t a bad

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