Index of Letters. Return to Story 4.
Hello from Shandra.
We didn’t want Shanti to be a pushover and to let Joseph off easy about claiming to be single in his advert and then turning out to be married so we added his concern about the delay in Shanti’s late reply. He then gave a rather weak explanation as to why he was married. Is this good enough? Is he actually telling the truth? We will find out in later letters.
In this letter, we didn’t realise at the time that we had started a rather spirited series of comments and conversations about Indian women being either traditional or modern in their dress and behaviour. Joseph, of course, is very traditional while Shanti is very Western and more modern so we quickly saw the potential of this for some interesting and fun exchanges between them. Even after over 100 letters they still throw light-hearted remarks and comments at each other so watch out for this as the series continues.
Notice Joseph is quick to accept Shanti’s offer to send him a photo of her in a swimsuit. He is even bold enough to ask her about wearing a bikini too. When I wrote this and sent it to Anne, she was a bit surprised at first. It took her a few days to think of how Shanti would reply to this. You see at that time I only owned a one-piece swimsuit. Since I still lived with my parents I would never have dared to buy a bikini or for that matter had ever worn one in public.
I told Anne at the time that when I had seen her and Susan wearing bikinis I had been a bit excited by the thought of trying one too. Later I began to borrow one from Anne when we went out swimming and then took care to get my own swimsuit wet before I went home. As you can see this bikini idea was rather a surprising new development for us.
Now go and read Joseph’s letter (Letter 4) and then next week let’s see Shanti’s reply in her next letter.
In this letter, we didn’t realise at the time that we had started a rather spirited series of comments and conversations about Indian women being either traditional or modern in their dress and behaviour. Joseph, of course, is very traditional while Shanti is very Western and more modern so we quickly saw the potential of this for some interesting and fun exchanges between them. Even after over 100 letters they still throw light-hearted remarks and comments at each other so watch out for this as the series continues.
Notice Joseph is quick to accept Shanti’s offer to send him a photo of her in a swimsuit. He is even bold enough to ask her about wearing a bikini too. When I wrote this and sent it to Anne, she was a bit surprised at first. It took her a few days to think of how Shanti would reply to this. You see at that time I only owned a one-piece swimsuit. Since I still lived with my parents I would never have dared to buy a bikini or for that matter had ever worn one in public.
I told Anne at the time that when I had seen her and Susan wearing bikinis I had been a bit excited by the thought of trying one too. Later I began to borrow one from Anne when we went out swimming and then took care to get my own swimsuit wet before I went home. As you can see this bikini idea was rather a surprising new development for us.
Now go and read Joseph’s letter (Letter 4) and then next week let’s see Shanti’s reply in her next letter.
Kia Kaka - Kia Kaha.
Be safe - Be strong.
Shandra.
Be safe - Be strong.
Shandra.
Hi again Girls.
ReplyDeleteDo you know what! I am actually enjoying your backgrounds as much as the stories. You are really showing us what was going on in your heads when you wrote these letters. They are an interesting insight into how this massive project got under way.
I like that last bit, never owned or worn a bikini, but here you are writing about sending bikini photos to a guy in India.
Good work so far, Amy.
Hi Amy.
DeleteSusan told us about you last night. Another school teacher in here. Not sure I can handle that.! LOL!
The lack of feed back on these background notes has always been a disappointment for the girls here. They put a lot of work into writing them but they seem to be getting overlooked. Anne and Shandra have even considered removing them we have all voted for them to stay. Thanks for what you are doing for us.
Allan.
Interesting insights into one of the foundation writers here.
ReplyDeleteThe woman Amy mentioned she was enjoying these background notes. I must confess I am too.
Moa.
We are happy you are reading the background notes.
DeleteMost people, particularly men don't bother. I think they will miss the real point of our stories.
Kim