Telephone

The name- 'Telephone' rings a bell always. For me, it's a personal and emotional affair. Do not mistake - I am not referring to the cool, extra-modern, extravagant counterpart - the mobile. No doubt, mobiles are way ahead of my humble telephone but I owe my heart to the telephone.

Back in the 80s, when this humble thing paved its way into the field of communication, the society was filled with happiness and awe. Its functionality, it's quickness, it's ability to actually make you listen to the voice of your loved ones - everything filled people's minds and hearts with unbelievable joy. 

This was the era of Doordarshan, refrigerator and now the telephone - mind well - all are luxury items. The whole society with a house of 60 would have hardly one telephone and one fridge and one television but are available for everyone for use. The cricket matches, serials like Mahabharat and Ramayan, etc would have the drawing room of the television owner filled with audience.  The fridge similarly belongs not only to the owner but also found place for rare medicines/injections of neighbours and other items like the ice creams, etc. In summer, ice would be a commodity needed by all and transported from the one house especially when there are guests at other houses.

Now came the telephone - the black piece with a dialer that had to be rotated and the longest rotation was for zero. I still recollect the number used to be just three digits. Again this number would be shared by all neighbours to their relatives. In case of emergency, they would call. This has to be in two phases. First they call and tell us whom do we have to call. The children of the house will then run to that particular house and call them. They would come and wait for the call. The call comes again, both ends talk and mission accomplished. Calls are short. Telephone is for communication and communication alone. Talk to the point and be quick as after 3 minutes or so, the call rate increases per minute. For eg. If first 3 minutes cost 1 rupee per minute, after 3 minutes it would become 1.50 rupee per minute.

Calling to another state requires trunk call booking. There are again two types - ordinary (less costly) and lightning (costlier) as the former will take time - sometimes up to 2 hours while lightning connects immediately. The latter is seldom used in case of grave emergencies. I still remember that lady who connected the calls. We need to call the telephone exchange and ask them for a trunk booking and provide details like the person to be contacted, their telephone number, STD code, etc.  You can even ask them to remind you after certain call time has lapsed. Just being the beginning of an invention, there used to be small issues. Like when you are sharing details l, the line may not be clear and the details would be pronounced in another interesting way. For eg. The contact person is Mr. Dipesh. To make it more clear, it would be told as , " Madam, D for Denmark, I for Ireland, P for Paris, E for England, S for Singapore and H for Holland." The era of invention, sharing, caring and joy. This was the gift of my nation to me, and I held it tight till yesterday. Wherever in India, we always had a landline though in the race with mobiles and computers this poor thing was left far behind. It came to us like a device of patriotism.

Lately, the national telephone - my telephone - my first telephone has been having issues and we were facing it too. Line breakdowns, speed issues (internet), etc. However, we hugged it tight. Even when the nation switched to better and cheaper options, we stayed with this old friend loyally. Yesterday, finally, the D -day came. After a couple of days of breakdown again not for the first time in the month, we took the harsh decision to surrender it.

With a heavy heart, tears that refused to flow and immense resistance from within, we were forced to give up. I had booked a complaint two days back and no response came. That too was one of the reason to give up. Today, an official comes to check the fault, and I had to tell we had surrendered the phone. He immediately connects to his higher authority who on conversation said - Oh! It was the bad weather. The sigh he gave was the last nail in the coffin making me now not only sad but guilty also.

The childhood memories remain and will always. New replaces old but the replacement comes with a price - the price of old memories and emotions!

Take care 

Regards

SRN