Meet the Sethis -- a typical Indian close-knit family that shares jokes and secrets, recipes of grandma's achaar, wedding pictures, shopping lists, family gossip and intimate bonds. The wonder of it is that they do all this online.

This takes place chiefly through daily email exchanges between Mrs Sethi and her daughters Mallika, a student in Boston, and Malini, a primary school teacher in Bahrain. Her son, Amrish, also shoots off the occasional email, waxing on everything from family bonds to fascism. Mrs Sethi claims that communicating on a daily basis with her daughters over the Internet has made them feel closer: "It gives me an idea of the kind of lives they live. It's like I'm living it with them!"

The Sethis are among hundreds of 'wired' Indian families who use email, chat, instant messengers, Web pages and e-groups to breach the distance between their geographical locations.

How to Put Your family on the Web If you have a family that is dispersed, you can use the Web to get-together, share and bond. Here's how. Here are two sites that let you put up a family web page without too much of a fuss. Family And You Allows you to set up a family site in "two clicks". Check out sample families online. Has sections like address book, family calendar, message board, photo album, recipes, chat and more. Indian Roots Provides a free family site for people of Indian origin. You can create your family tree, family album, upload family video clips, and family news. Alternatively you can set up an egroup. These let you keep in touch with your family at email speed. An email sent to the groups address gets distributed to all members. You can set reminders for important dates, and even have polls on where to have your next get-together. Here are three sites that allow you to do it. Yahoo Groups Topica Exchange MSN Groups

The progeny of OA Mathew have collected on Yahoo Groups to form Oamsons. Scattered across much of the south in Kottayam, Ernakulam, Aluva, Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore, as well as Mumbai, Mathew's sons, daughters and grandchildren lay claim to being "a wired joint family," according to Jacob, one of the family.

The Mathews send email and post on their e-group every alternate day, discussing all sorts of topics. Posts are peppered with a lingo, familiar to the family but totally alien to an outsider, creating the feeling of a closely linked group of people. There are reminders of birthdays, invitations to musical performances and notices about email address changes. And amidst all this, the Mathews say, they have found a stronger, closer bond. Jacob says that even marriages are arranged through the Internet, which serves as the venue for a family conference to decide whether a match is suitable.

'Cool Carvalhos' is the domain of a family based in Colaba, Mumbai, that migrated from Coondapur in Mangalore. A bright, funky site, it includes family history; addresses of members in Mumbai, the Middle East and North America; and a frequently updated page with the latest family news.

The site's guest book, signed by most of the family, also serves as a message board to exchange news and comment on recent posts. "Finally Ryan's snaps are in, felt real nice looking at the family and Ryan, you guys make a great couple," writes Anisha from Rhode Island. Another posting by Deborah Alvarez Caron from Miami reads, "I just found out tonight that my family (Alvarez) was actually 'Carvalho' until the persecution by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 of the Jews. This is how we came to be called 'Alvarez'. Thanks for your Web site! Great graphics and audio."

A Web site isn't mandatory. If you don't have one, you could set up a mailing group comprising the email Ids of all your family members. Members can then send mail to the common address and it will be received by everyone else. The only minor drawback is that you'll receive your own mail too. However that's a small price to pay.

Such mailing groups are especially useful for people who do not have the time to correspond individually with a large number of relatives. Now, just one email from you will bring them all up to date on what's happening at your end and also let them know you were thinking of them.

Of course, having a Web site does help as you can put up a lot more information and don't have to fear receiving notices that 'you've exceeded your account size limit'! Recently, my own family launched a site. Vaidya Parivar is a comprehensive guide to my family. It includes history, birthdays, photographs and the latest news from members in Mumbai, Canada, Jakarta and England. So far we've had only a couple of posts and I don't know if the already strong bonds between us have strengthened further. But I did receive a lot more birthday cards and email after the site was launched into cyberspace!

More Resources: Is your family wired? -- Senior surfers make young friends -- Are parents talking to their kids? -- Parents name baby after domain

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