Courtesy of Raabet
Fun on the Internet
By ShahrAshoob
The Iranian
June 1997
I arrived at work a little late that February Monday morning. I had stayed up with Kami till late hours. It was one of our weekly rituals. We watched an episode of Star Trek-The Next Generation, talked, watched another episode, and talked some more. I smiled as I thought of Kami, my adopted brother. His presence in my life had brought such joy.
The beep from the computer brought me back to reality. I typed in my user ID and password and logged on. "You have mail. Sixty-seven messages to download," said the voice from the email program. "Okay, not too bad today." I went to the kitchen to get my morning cup of coffee.
When I came back I scanned down the list to read the more interesting stuff first. Four or five emails from the Film alias, three from the Society of Iranian Professionals, one from the Persian Center, three regarding the some fund-raising for the Children of Iran, and five emails regarding Raabet.
What's Raabet? I wondered as I opened the first email about Raabet from Mina. "Check this site out. Pretty interesting," was her comment. I read the next email: "Since Valentine's Day is around the corner you might want to check this web site," Majid wrote followed by Raabet's URL. Three other email messages recommended Raabet as well.
I couldn't take it any more. I had to check out this site. So I launched Netscape and put in the URL. A Persian web page popped up and at the bottom there was a link called Del-beh-Del (Heart-2-Heart) I double clicked on the link and went in. "Oh, it is an Iranian match making site! This is pretty funny." I filled in a form and described the characteristics of the man of my dreams; age: 30-40; description: well it doesn't really matter how he looks. Height: doesn't really matter either. Star sign: could be important, but for now doesn't really matter. Let's just get all the men :-)
I saw descriptions from men from all over the world who had put in their profiles. They mostly claimed to be good looking, and almost all of them said they didn't want commitment, "friendship" first. "So typical! The one thing they can say about themselves is that they don't want commitment. Chicken shits! I already have all the friends I need. I need a fabulous lover..." I smiled sarcastically at the profiles.
And then there it was, in front of my eyes, Kami's profile. "You sneaky devil. You didn't tell me about this site." I pressed the reply button but it wouldn't let me send a message to him unless I submit my own profile. So I did: age 32; physical profile: cute, and in the description box I wrote: "Just for the fun of it." Then I went in and sent a cryptic email to Kami, knowing that only he would understand it. "Is it really you? You know, you, me and Boogandoo and ST-TNG weeknight! If it is you then you know who this is."
"Okay, too much fun for this morning." I started reading work-related emails. Then the phone rang and the day started. People marched in and out my office. I looked at my watch it was one o'clock. "Gosh! It's lunch time," I yelled out. Everybody had already gone to lunch. I went downstairs, bought a bowl of salad and returned to my office. "Time to read the rest of my emails... Oh, something interesting at the bottom." An email had arrived from a mysterious man routed via Raabet. I laughed out loud. "How very unexpected. Guess I'm wanted!" I laughed again.
I opened the email and read on. "Wow, this person is really interesting." I flipped over to Netscape and searched for the guy's profile. "Hmmmm, not bad." He wants friendship, but not bad! "No, no, no. You had promised not to go out with Iranian men any more. You know what will happen. Stay away from this guy... Oh, come on! A little fun won't hurt. This is really intriguing. Now I've gotta find out who this guy is." I emailed Mina who knows everybody around San Francisco's Bay Area. "Mina, who's Mehran Majidi? Do you know him?" "No, I think I saw his name on the Film alias, but I have never seen him. I'll check around," she replied. Later that day Mina sent another email. "Hey girl... Who's this guy? Nobody's seen him! Where's he been hiding?"
By now I was dying with curiosity. "Who is that masked man?" So, I replied to the email and that was the beginning of a glorious... What? I don't know. We sent at least several emails a day to each other. And we talked on the phone almost every night. But we hadn't seen each other. We poured out our souls in emails. They created such intoxicating feelings of closeness and intimacy. I didn't know who this guy was but I was already calling him darling, sweetie and other things I usually reserve for my friends or lovers. It was sooo weird.
Several weeks into this whatever I told my mother, "Ma, I have met a new guy." "That's great! How did you meet him? What does he look like? What does he do?" came the barrage of questions from my mom. "On the Internet, Ma. Well I haven't really met him yet, but we have exchanged several emails and he sounds really nice on the phone." "What? On the Internet? How did you do that?" She hadn't understood. So I told her the whole story.
"That's good! That's good!" she said excitedly. "Well, you all are the new Iranian generation. We can't do the match making for you any more because you won't let us. You throw a tantrum if we talk about a khaastegaar (suitor). So the Internet will do the match making for you," she laughed heartily. She was sooo happy. There was still some hope for me. And I remembered something someone had mentioned in an email: "Isn't the Internet just the greatest thing that's ever happened to humankind? Hooking up total strangers with a press of a button?"
The Internet was the greatest thing that happened to me. Mehran and I married a few months later and we now have two kids, a girl named Raha and a boy named Nima. I have my own consulting firm and I work from home so I can be with the kids. Well, I don't really need to work, but I do anyway. We live in Palo Alto in a beautiful four bedroom house. My parents moved to the Bay Area so they could be close to us and the kids. It is wonderful... CUTTTTTTT!
Come on people. This is reality and THAT is my mother's dream!
You women out there, sorry to report that there are no happily-ever-afters in this life. That's the story for Walt Disney Studios so they can make tons of money. And men, for your information, not all women want to grow up, get married and have kids. Some of us have discovered other alternatives.
Until next time, reporting live from the Bay Area, this is ShahrAshoob.
