Tooth Fairy Responds to Thousands of Emails
For almost two decades, thousands of children have sent emails to the tooth fairy—and the tooth fairy has diligently responded.
The tooth fairy, as it turns out, is a Seattle pediatric dentist named Dr. Purva Merchant. As she told The New York Times, it all started in 2004 when her boyfriend— now husband—created an email address for her that included her nickname, the tooth fairy. About three years later, Merchant received an email with the subject line “Calum’s tooth.” It said: “Dear Toothfairy, for two nights in a row, you have skipped Calum’s house. He will be at school today, do you think you can come while he’s at school? That would make him very happy!”
Realizing that she was hearing from a parent who had forgotten to leave money under a child’s pillow and was trying to pacify the child, Merchant responded with an apology, saying she had been busy picking up teeth at other children’s homes. “I’ll be sure to stop by tonight,” she wrote.
Since then, Merchant has received several emails each week, a total of about 6,000. The concerns range from a child asking if the tooth fairy can retrieve a tooth lost down a drain to asking if she can leave foreign currency under the pillow, instead of dollars. Merchant, a former Miss India Worldwide, does not share her email address publicly—she’s afraid of being flooded with email—but is happy to respond to anyone who happens to guess it. “There’s something amazing about doing something for someone, and they don’t know who you are,” she said.
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Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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