During my house-sitting stint in south London, the old neighbour (in his 90s, from Pakistan) from across the road came knocking on the door one day.
He’d just returned from a family visit in Canada, to find that he couldn’t ring out on his mobile phone, for some reason, so could I give him a hand, he asked. I went over with my phone to ring the people on his list (someone to fix his boiler, someone to fix something else). His son was there, too.
The following day, returning from a food shopping trip, I thought I’d check on him, just in case he needed more help.
As the son opened the door, my head was already shaking from side to side, the Indian sub-continent way, even before I asked him, “Has your mobile phone problem been sorted out?”
And I’m from a culture that doesn’t do the head-shaking…. So impressionable!
(London, 2023)
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