Most of us living in a foreign land espouse some rituals as a way of foreign life. One such ritual is calling back home frequently or infrequently (depending upon income levels and other factors). I always called home every Saturday night (calls are cheaper after 10pm by my phone carrier) Sunday morning Lahore time to speak for a few minutes with my father and my mother. Now my ingenious younger brother has hooked up some Internet phone at our home in Lahore that is ridiculously cheap (like some 10 cents a minute). I now have long conversations with all my brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, relatives, the woman who cleans our house, the gardener, the milkman and his son, and even the neighbors.
My mother, a devout 5-times a day praying Muslim, tells me last night, that she wholeheartedly believes that people who invented computer (she means the Internet phone) will go to Ganat (paradise).
She now gathers the entire Mohala (neighbors) near the computer and makes my kids and me talk to everyone on the other end. She now wants to set some time aside to teach my kids Punjabi (our mother tongue) on the phone. On the “Internet phone”! I think she just wants to b*&&^%$# with her grandsons. That mad woman!
[This message has been edited by kashmirigirl (edited June 28, 1999).]