An Old Lady Senior In America And A Young Technician In India- Now Friends Elita Sohmer Clayman

I spoke for three hours, that is the exact time, in India with a nice thirty year old young man named Vikram Singh. He told me he was married, had a four month old baby boy, a wife who is a college professor and he works for Hewlett Packard. That is the name of my printer and my third computer, a desktop. In the three hours, we talked and he was trying to get the printer to scan for me, I was able to get dressed, go to the bathroom, and learn all about him and his family. He told me he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in India, his master’s degree at Michigan State College. He chose to go back to India, because his mom is there and she probably did not want to leave there. He met his wife because his mom knew her family and they met that way.

He likes his job and his degrees are in computers and he sure tried hard to fix it. He took control of my screen and checked off things and ran it, all the way from India to Baltimore, Maryland USA. Of course, I deal with Verizon for the internet and the email and they do the same thing; though sometimes they say they are in the Philippines. All of these employees are kind, considerate, quite knowledgeable and extremely polite. It makes it easier to deal with them because of their constant politeness. He was able to get away from the screen to get a cup of coffee. I asked him whether he got a doughnut too and he said no. He told me he likes the old fashioned ordinary doughnuts, not the fancy ones with icing, jimmies, custard etc. kind.

In the three hours, I told him my age and he said I did not sound like seventy-eight. Actually, do people really sound like their ages unless they are sick and then they may talk a different way? My mom use to complain that her handwriting got worse as she aged. I laughingly told Mom, you really never had such a great handwriting, though it was readable and neat. I, on the other hand have a good handwriting because in my elementary school days, it was pushed on you to practice and you got marked in legibility. I always got the highest mark and even until now, I write fancy, plain, and clear. This is because not of any brilliance on my part; it is because they made us write, write and write more and you had to have a nice script. My brother who was five years older also had a nice handwriting. Dad too had a neat one and I have told you in previous stories, that Dad was a prolific writer of letters to the editor of the Sunpapers here in Maryland. He wrote about a letter every week or every other week and the Sun editor the well-known H.L Mencken wrote him back “we no longer can accept handwritten letters because they have erros in them.” Was he being facetious or did he spell erros wrong for errors?

We never knew because Dad kept on handwriting the letters and they were published each time and he wrote on his opinions of the things going on in the world and the community. They never once did not publish them and when he died, they noticed his death obituary and called Mom’s house and they asked to write an obituary on him. That they did and they said he was a prolific writer for many years and did not mention the H.L. Mencken comments.

I wish I had the original letter from H.L. to Joseph B. Sohmer, it would be worth some money now days because H.L. was very highly thought of as a journalist and essayist.

So the technician in India and an old lady senior, active adult, became kind of friends over the phone and the computer for over three hours. He has to call again tomorrow to complete the printer unable to scan pictures, which I love to do. I had to leave after one hundred and ninety-five minutes to go to an appointment, I could not cancel. By then, my aching Arthritic right knee was aching; I was tired of sitting and really was quite hungry since I missed lunch.

It was an interesting experience and he told me lots about his life. He is devoted to his wife, baby and Mom who is a widow and he is an only child. He asked me do I go to church, do I pray every day and that if I had done Yoga, I would not have this Arthritic knee. These are very interesting observations from a thirty year old to a seventy-eight year old.

Who knows, maybe he gave me good and informative thoughts to ponder. Maybe, I will take up Yoga, though I do not think I could sit on the hard floor at this age, though they may give pads or blankets out.

It is interesting to speak to foreigners, though he is one to me and I am also a foreigner to him.

I liked that he thought I did not sound my age, by my voice. I admired his fine English vocabulary and I told him about my grandchildren’s ages.  Maybe, if more of us spoke on the phone to people in foreign countries and we chatted about our families, our education, our Moms, the world could or might be not at war with each other. Who knows, it is a simple statement and he asked me if I ever thought of coming to India. He said lots of Americans do. I said, my travel days other than visiting family out of town, are over. I have been to Europe three times and glad I went when we were younger and could handle traveling easier.

I will talk with him tomorrow and tell him I wrote a column mentioning how fine a representative of Hewlett Packard he is and perhaps with his computer knowledge and degrees, he can log on to the HuntValley-Cockeysville. Patch. com and see my remarks about him. That would be cool as the kids all say. I am sure he will print it off and show it to his son when he is old enough to understand that an old lady senior in America, became a friend to his dad in India, one Thursday  for over three hours and they both respected and liked one another. Perhaps if he came back to America, he could come and visit me. That too would be real neat and so cool.