I am amazed by you ma!!

After coming back from my vacation, I keep thinking more about my mom.

Today as I was sitting in my workplace, obviously not working, I called back the funny memories I had when I lived with my mom back in home.

When we first had mobile phone in home, I explained her basic things like how to place/attend/disconnect a call. Few days later, I was in Nokia dealer shop, called her and explained the features of the phone that I was going to buy her. She stopped me after I said the 2nd or 3rd feature, she questioned "Just tell me does that phone has green button and red button?". She is right, that's all she was going to use. But now, she sends text messages and in modern English, you know, "Whr r u?", "Cal", "S", "Y?", "r u dr?", "Luk Tick Kumb Comb". By the way the last message should be interpreted as "Look for train tickets availability from Kumbakonam to Coimbatore". Every time I finish talking with her, she sends a message with the action point so that I won't forget. Not even once did her abbreviation failed to bring smile in my face.

This is the most interesting one. I laugh even now when I think of the times when my kid brother and I taught her how to use computer. We asked her to sit in the chair and we both stood either side of her. I pointed a folder on the desktop and showed her how to click it to open it. She was confused how did I click. So I pointed out the arrow pointer and how the arrow pointer moves as the mouse is moved. Then, I asked her to try once herself. She carefully held the mouse at the end with thumb and index finger and keenly watched her hand on mouse instead of looking the computer. She moved the mouse very slowly, and as she is not looking the monitor, she questioned for every millimeter movement, "Am I there yet? ... Should I go even far?". Me and my brother completely lost track of what we are actually doing, started giving instructions, "Left... Bit right... then turn left slowly... Not this fast...!! slowly...". She followed our commands religiously and reached the folder. Double clicking was whole other story. We three had such good laugh on that day. But then she learned very fast and was playing Solitaire, Freecell and other MS games when she gets some time out of the kitchen.

My brother then once found list of mouse cursors and set up one animated cursor that looks like banana that peels itself and some invisible bites... as the default mouse cursor. My mom told as she saw the cursor, "It looks like the computer is haunted!!".

When I taught her how to use the internet, she was so surprised on how much she can do in web. She even complained how she wasted her whole life in cooking, washing vessels and not learning anything. She didn't want to waste her time anymore. The whole time when I was there, she finished her house chores as fast as she can, and came to the computer desk, with peak interest she browsed the web, cleared her doubts then and there. Now she can book train tickets and do all basic operations in web… I was amazed by her ability to learn things fast and her confidence.

Believe it or not; When I held her hand to teach her how to move the mouse, I am sure she felt the same vibe when she held my hands to teach me how to write 'அ', 'ஆ' ... Because I felt that myself...