allah, ram & christ

am halfway through my medical transcription course; and have new respect for the medical profession.   the terminology alone is mind boggling!! 

there are 2 very traditional girls doing the course with me - a muslim and a hindu.  all of us come from such diverse backgrounds and are wives, mothers, daughters, friends, lovers.  

S who is muslim, hails from kolar and was raised very traditionally, right down to the gaudy & shiny clothes she wears, loves her husband with the shy, almost innocent love of a newly wed - they will be married a year this april.  her english speaking skills and vocabulary leave a lot to be desired, but she plods along, trying at every step, asking me for help, and requests, nay, almost demands that i correct her grammar!! 

P, a telugu speaking hindu is also fairly traditional.  like S, she too had an arranged marriage, and just about tolerates her chauvinistic, overbearing husband who is still tied to his mama's apron strings.  their conversation is a little more than "pass the salt."  they have a gorgeous daughter who is almost 2 years old, whose existence he barely acknowledges, because she committed the terrible sin of being born a girl!!   he works for a globally recognised company, but his thinking is so, for want of a better word, local.

and me, another S, a catholic from such a non-traditional family, it's not funny!!  met my husband on a blind date, married almost 12 years, have inlaws who spoil me rotten (have u heard of an indian father-in-law cooking for his daugher-in-law?!) and a gorgeous 10 year old daughter.

we have lunch together, so reminiscent of our days in school and college, and like girls and women everywhere have a bit of a chat. and gossip about cooking, household chores, parents, inlaws, husbands, sex et al. 

the 3 of us - united by medical transcription, but more importantly by diversity!!   

allah, ram and christ!