From: Kamal E Y [email protected] >

To: Sabrina [email protected] >

Sent: 27 April, 2000 11:01 PM

Subject: my relatives and my village

Honey,

Good, S city has become an international city and no one cares about the nationality of whom you marry. But in my place, nationality dies matter. Nationality matters because you can't speak our local language. Coupled with this is our age difference. If the problem was any one of these, then their things would have been better.

Not able to speak our language means you can't communicate with my other family members. So people will start talking that I married someone who can't take care of my family. In India, taking care of the parents is considered to be the duty of the son.

S city is a city where no one knows who is staying next to you. You don't know who is staying in the upstairs of your house. My place is small. Everyone knows almost everyone in the village. They all know what I am and where I am and what I have done in the past. Each and every shop owner asks me about my work and health as I walk through my village. It is a small world there. All the villagers and relatives actively take part in all the activities of the family. I won't say it is good or bad. But it is the way there.

This is exactly the same reason I want my family to move out before I could marry you. Nobody is going to admire my English skills because I could talk to a foreigner. They will say "his parents gave him a good education. But see what he has done to them now!"

This is my village and relatives. I didn't choose them. It was given.

Kamal