The Zoom Holiday Card That Did Not Work

I come from an Indian family that has been living in the UK for the past 3 generations. Despite the fact that my grandfather brought his entire family to the magical, dreamy land of the United Kingdom in the hope of a better future for his family, he fiercely protected his Indian cultural roots.

He made it his life dream to ensure that his son did not turn into a white English man. The fact that his motherland was enslaved and exploited by the white English men did not ever leave his mind. 

He wore his Indian kurtas in public, smoked the Indian brand of cigarettes, and even used Indian name for his son. He celebrated Diwali and Holi, instead of Christmas. According to him, he saw this as his small acts of rebellion against the country that sucked his nation dry. 

My father grew up in such a westerners-hating-environment. Luckily for me, he did not harbor any hatred towards the English and allowed me to do whatever I wanted.

I dressed in short skirts and tank tops like an English, spoke English, and even smoked English cigarettes. 

I can already hear my grandfather looking down at me disapprovingly.

However, the custom of never celebrating any non-Indian holidays continued in my household.

My grandfather turned out to be a smart man. He played cupid for my father and made him fall head over heels with an Indian woman when he went there for his annual family trip. That's another long story for another day.

My father who grew up in a household that never celebrated Christmas and my mother who grew up in a country where Christmas celebration was not even a thing, never celebrated the western holidays. 

As a rebellious teenager, I envied my white friends. December would be a joyous time for them where the entire family would get together and drink hot drinks and binge on steaming hot, delicious food. In comparison, all my family would do is sleep till late, eat regular food, and maybe watch a Christmas movie. 

Several times, I tried to make the Christmas celebration happen. I cooked food, brought my family together for a family game, and a night full of romantic, cozy movies. However, it did not work. The parents took part for the sake of taking part. After two Christmases of lifeless, and dull celebrations, I just gave up.

Fast forward to college, I met several wonderful people. Knowing my story, they invited me to their houses for holidays (my parents could not care less), fed me warm turkey and mashed potatoes till I was full, involved me in games and movie nights.

For the first time in my 20 years of existence, I was able to get my Christmas celebrations. 

This year, we decided to not meet in person.

All of us have aging parents who are vulnerable to infection and medical complications. My friend, Rose suggested that we do a virtual holiday card, keeping with the tradition. We planned that we would come online on Zoom, turn our cameras on (a rare sight) and make a sign with our fingers. 

We felt a sudden gratefulness towards technology and human advancement. Social Dilemma was wrong. The technology was a great tool, we thought. 

As 4 people and 4 alphabets, We went with the word LOVE. After all, everyone needs love in their lives, especially in the current time.

We turned on the cameras and folded out fingers to form the letters. Just when I decided to take a screenshot, two of my friends who were given the duty of forming O and E dropped out. Since they were together, they were logged in from one laptop.

The dear laptop decided to choose that exact moment to die.

This is how our photo came out. With only LV written with our fingers. 

When we saw the photo, we laughed for 10 minutes straight. It was hilarious. The technology was supposed to connect us, but it disconnected our plans to form the perfect holiday photo. We also made jokes about the LV sign.

Once the other friends were back, we took the perfect photo, however, the missing OE photo turned out to be the most favorite.