....

i have an incomplete list of words i have heard enough in the swamy household:
definitely.ideally.experience.unique.get an idea.perfect.auntie.
it reminds me of the part in the calvino book where the girl has this machine that dissects books by listing the words by the frequency with which they appear. the tyranny of the aunties is giving aroon difficulty in coming to jos with us. indians have so many aunties and all an auntie really is is someone your parents or your mother likes to gossip and make chatter with. there are about eighteen aunties and uncles rolling up here every day and mary gives them trays with water and smallchop and they ask me what i think of nigeria and they ask surya for his sister's impressions on her employment and he says the same thing with the same smile and the same inflection in his voice. i have a set of about three expressions i change around depending on my mood. one is to say i like it and grin and that i hope to see more. the other is to say that there are large lizards here and it amuses me to watch them. the third is to say i liked to watch a goslow one fond day a week ago and the auntie or the uncle will say unique experience to me. surya will grin and affirm that this is in fact a unique experience. everyone seems encouraged to hear that there has been something to stimulate my mental development. the new thing is to give me a mobile with all black and white geometrical shapes because babies are colorblind or something like that. anyhow aroon's parents found out he was going to take a road trip this was the biggest thing on the auntie talk show circuit and soon there were about fourty eight stories of highway thieves and now he is in trouble. mrs. swamy has prepared a first aid kit for us which contains, amongst other things, cipro and valium.