Dear Future Mother-in-Law,

I sincerely regret that our first meeting began with, "GET OUT! I don't like this friendship." I understand your concern, but I assure you that you have nothing to worry about. Your son is very happy, and I think you should thus be happy for him. He would, conversely, be quite unhappy should you force him to date a "nice Tamil girl".

You of all people should understand. Before you got married, your mother forbade you from seeing your husband-to-be, simply for the reason that he came from a poor family. You ran away from home with him, you chose love over class, and now you have a beautiful family in Canada. You of all people should understand.

I am not a bad person. I have mentored troubled youth, served meals to the homeless, built houses for the poor in a developing country, volunteered in hospitals, tutored struggling high school kids, written letters for refugees, and given free legal advice to poor clients. I am an excellent student, and a future lawyer. My future ambitions are to represent refugees in federal courts, facilitating the immigration process for migrants of war and human rights abuses. It is the very same work that permitted you and your family to come to this country.

All this aside, I love your son. If all goes well, we'll be married in the summer of 2012. Hope to see you at the wedding.