Another ad (Google India ad - promoting digital literacy among women). Another trigger. Another memory.
[The daughter as she says bye to her mother, asks if she remembers everything and when her mother says yes, they say their byes and she heads out. The daughter outside hear's the school's bell ring and children heading out to class. It triggers her memory of her first day in school how her mom took care of all the details, gave her strength and encouragement as daughter was going to be away for THREE hours. Daughter wonders if that was harder for the mother than her. Today, the roles reversed and she is teaching and giving her mom the encouragement.]
Back to fall 1996. I was 18 years old. First semester in college. Over 2,000 miles away from parents. First time. Alone. On my own. The hardest part was not being able to talk and share everything with mom whenever I wanted to. Well, we tried. We called just to say hello. We called for recipes. We called so I could vent. And we called to talk. In the family, dad and sis were the quieter ones. Mom and I were the talkers. And it must have been harder for mom as at least I was distracted with life. Each minute to Singapore costed well over $1.50/minute. So, you do the math. I couldn't legally work unless on campus and the waitlist for jobs there was a mile long.
Dad had to play the bad guy and stop the calls. We had a computer at our home since 1995. But it wasn't connected to anything. So, finally internet came home and I signed on AOL and once they had the $19.95 unlimited life got easier. We emailed long emails. Mom who never touched a computer before learnt. We did call each other to teach her a few things. Dad and sis are not as patient a teacher.
Back then mom amongst her friends and peers was a pioneer. My close friend who was a computer geek and helped me learn to build my own computer, was so jealous as his mother refused to even touch the computer. His mom was also in Malaysia.
Today, so many of us take the internet and communication tools for granted. But the internet at one time was a lifeline that kept us close even when we were oceans apart. Mom, since a decade now, has been running yahoo! groups, Google Groups! And is not timid of learning something new. It truly gave her such confidence and such meaning!
Now we have Vonage, offering free calls to so many places including India. It makes being so far away a little easier.
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