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![[Staying in Touch]](18lead.gif)
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Nidhi Taparia
Angelo Mathews is 20, studying to be a pilot at the Royal Western College in Perth, Australia. For the past five years he has logged on, regularly, trying to keep in touch with his roots the only way he knows how: via his modem.
Moving to an alien country is not easy, especially when there aren't many Indians around. For Angelo, the Internet helped combat the initial loneliness: "Apart from the thrill of finding so much information on India, what I enjoyed most was chatting. My first chat was completely in Hinglish, so much so that I used only Hindi to communicate."
Years spent in Australia have led to his Hindi becoming quite rusty, which is why sites like Bharatmail.com (which translate from English to Hindi) have come as a Godsend, helping him correspond with his family. This interest has also helped his folks get Net savvy, and his mother now has an email account to correspond with her brother in India. "Teaching her was one tough task. I still laugh thinking about how, one day, I found her looking for the 'any key' button on the computer…"
This connectivity has also helped unite the entire Mathews family. "Last year, my cousins thought I was pulling an MTV Bakra on them, when I ordered online movie tickets as a surprise for their birthdays." Angelo also uses a lot of voice and video mail, though voice chatting is difficult with connectivity hassles in India. " One of my cousins works for IBM in Hyderabad. She prints out email and pictures, and then circulates them like a daily newsletter."
Does this search for one's roots make him feel good? Not always, says Angelo. "When I read about parties I would have attended with my friends, or festivals being celebrated, I get depressed. At times like those, pictures, reports and video trailers are some consolation."
Once logged on, his routine is simple. Of the fifteen sites he surfs, ten are Indian, and include Expressindia, rediff.com, Indolink, Indiatimes, and Indya.com. The habit has kept him completely updated with the latest in India, be it politics, entertainment or the music scene.
As a chatting freak, Angelo swears by MIRC. "There are almost 500 to 600 people chatting in the India channel at any given time." He has even spent up to twelve hours online, of which six were spent chatting. "Tell me," he asks, "why are Indian girls so ga-ga about NRI guys? The moment I say I'm settled in Australia, I get more attention even in a crowded chat room."
Does he still prefer chatting with Indians? You bet. "They relate to a lot of the things I do, like movies or cricket. Only an Indian can understand your passion for cricket, even though cricket is played in Australia." Living down under hasn't dimmed his fervour for the game. "During the finals between India and Australia, I got into a huge argument on the MTVIndia site, about the match. I was punching the keys so hard it was almost as if I was banging the keyboard on the other guy's head."
One more passion: Bollywood. "I stayed up till 2 am to watch Filmfare and Zee award web casts." He also has his own Web site dedicated to Preity Zinta, which boasts a few hundred members and seven co-founders from Canada, America, Australia and India.
Like most NRIs, Angelo finds it frustrating that the Internet has not permeated down to all levels within the country. "Unlike most of the world, in India it is so difficult to reserve train tickets, or book a hotel room, with a click."
What also bothers him tremendously is the way some Indians misuse the medium. "Some of them have no clue about net etiquette! It's just another way for them to let out their frustration. They also run down their own country, which is disappointing."
On his wish list is an online voting system for the country and, maybe, even the ability to order curry online. It just might happen….
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