I came home from work and unlocked the door, expecting my daughter, Oishi to be at her desk doing homework. She had been working on an American History thesis paper for the last two marking periods, and her chosen topic was Music in the Underground Railroad. It was natural for her to do online research on many websites for the paper, but not Amazon.
“Oishi, why are you on Amazon for your research? And why are you using Bing instead of Google?”
“Mama, I had to check something on Amazon, and I use both Bing and Google for my online research. Don’t worry. I have good material for my thesis paper.” With a hint of nervousness, she tried to assure me that her research was on track.
A couple of days ago, when I returned home from work, Oishi looked at me and said, “I cannot keep it a secret any longer, even though I wanted to surprise you on Mother’s Day.” She put her hand inside her school bag and took out a small pouch which had a pair of aqua colored, silver designed, oval shaped earrings.
Ecstatic but perplexed, I asked, “How did you get those?”
“Bing has a rewards program. I opened an account and used it for my research. I accumulated points everyday by searching on Bing, and when I accumulated 525 points, I got five dollars for my Amazon account.”
She gave me the pair of earrings and said, “Happy Early Mother’s Day, Mama!”
