Crying Uncle
January 11, 2010
As an English speaker, I say Uncle. It never occurred to me that there could be anything more than one kind of Uncle. But if you think about it, there are actually FOUR different types of Uncles. In Pakistan, people differentiate between these types of uncles, and there’s a different word for each of them. The four different types (and their Urdu equivalent) of uncles are:
Your father’s brother (Chacha)
Your mother’s brother (Mama)
Your mother’s sister’s husband (Khaloo)
Your father’s sister’s husband (Poopha)
I remember when I was telling one of M’s friends about my Uncle and he asked me “Which uncle? On your mother’s side or your father’s side?” I answered him – it was on my mother’s side – but I also secretly wondered why the heck he needed that information. What does it matter? An uncle’s an uncle.
Why is this topic in my mind today, you ask? Well, we have a new character to introduce to you fine readers here at The Gori Wife Life. M’s brother, who you might recall was recently accepted into a Ph.D program at an University very close to our school, is called Chachoo by my son – it is his father’s brother after all. And I decided that could be a good pseudonym for him on this website!
And the reason why THAT is in my mind today is because tonight, M, the baby, and I stood in the international arrivals area of our local airport for three hours until Chachoo walked through those doors and into our life. We then brought him back to our house which is now his house too, and showed him to his new room. (Well, “his” room until my parents or grandparents come to visit, then he gets kicked out to sleep on an air mattress in the laundry room.)
He starts school in a week and tomorrow I’m driving him all around town to get his last minute affairs in order. Then, later in the week we’ll start the tour of close-by family members’ homes/cities. I’m assuming there will be interesting stories as a result of this new development. Which means we better finish up those posts about traveling in Pakistan so we can move on to this juicy topic!
