Sharing a Laugh, from Milwaukee to Mumbai

I called EarthLink tech support late the other night and connected with "Sarah" from Mumbai or Hyderabad or wherever.

When I told her my name, she got kind of excited and said, with that wonderful Indian lilt in her voice: "Miss Jamakaya, do you know what your name means in my language?"

I sorta knew but, being polite, asked anyway, "What?"

"It is a type of fruit we eat here, a guava."

"Actually, I remember that," said I, "I looked it up on the Internet once and jamakaya is said to be the sweetest guava."

"Yes, it is my favorite fruit," she said, with absolute delight in her voice.

"It is a very beautiful name," she added.

I thanked her and told her its derivation and the fact that "jamakaya" and "kaya" or "kia" mean a variety of things in many different languages – luckily all good things – and she laughed.

I could hear others laughing as well so I got the impression I was on speakerphone. The conversation was probably being monitored as they often warn you in advance when calling customer service numbers.

“Sarah” was very smart and effective in helping to correct the glitch I was having with my internet connection and email and then waited patiently while I reopened all the programs to make sure they were working properly.

When my email program opened I immediately received a spam letter, so I said to "Sarah": "Well, now I know my email's working for sure because I just got spammed."

I then heard a chorus of Indians laughing uproariously on the other side of the world!

What a fun interaction!

Then we said a pleasant goodbye.

Wish I'd gotten her name tho, because I'm betting it wasn't Sarah . . .