my parents go online

I've just received the first email my parents have ever sent. Can the Second Coming be far behind?

My sister Sneha, and her partner, Chris, are visiting Nairobi right now. One of the missions I charged them with was to get my parents to an internet cafe, to make the first pinprick holes in the wall of their resistance to computers and email. The email I got is from Chris's gmail account, and I can just see them standing over him dictating it, contradicting and interrupting each other every 10 seconds :-)

It says:

Dear Shailja,

We have just seen your website and think it is fantastic. We are anxiously awaiting your performance in Nairobi in February.

We hope you are enjoying your friend Poonam's visit and having a good holiday week.

Sneha and Chris are off to Mombasa tomorrow. If you need anything from Mombasa, please e-mail Sneha or Chris. Only do not ask them to bring a madafu as it would be too heavy.

Happy New Year and God Bless!

Love,

Mummy and Daddy

Footnote: A madafu is a green coconut filled with coconut water that tastes like nectar. Every year, as children, we went on an annual one-week family holiday to Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast. It was the only time my father ever took off work. The almost unbearably exciting moment of arrival, after 5 hours of dusty driving, was when the air turned salty, and the first madafu stand emerged from the shimmering heat waves at the side of the road.