After Sir Alexander Graham Bell invented this tool long back, has travelled a long distance and come to the ages where we can finally call it ‘walk and talk’. I was calling a friend from a local post office. Surprised? I am talking about the days when I was in school and most probably studying in eight standard. Experience was bit scary; I was very nervous and almost shaking. That was the first time and all first timers for different things will come out with different stories.
Of Course, I will remember Sir Alexander Graham Bell for other thing, he was the person who introduced Helen Keller to a wonderful human named Anne Mansfield Sullivan (Macy) and I feel that magic was even bigger.
When first time I landed in Mumbai (then Bombay), to get a telephone connection you have to bribe the peoples from top to bottom and if you wanted it very fast then the amount of bribe, hold your breath it was something around twenty five thousand, unless you know somebody over there (its always happens yar). Back home Kolkata it was then a prize possession and even in early nineties the telephone in our house was always dead like a cold body lying in the morgue; only difference was that sometime there was a bit sign of life I mean in the instrument which installed and always lying in our sitting room. Early eighties I was calling a friend in Dubai, on those days an ISD call means minimum three hundred rupees. She was Egyptian, English was alien to her, and even I could speak Arabic very fluently but not writing it. When Last time I talked, her chips were down for something and I was speechless for a moment, before I could gather myself telephone line disconnected. So paying 300 bucks every time was not a mater of joke. Today I am armed with seven email accounts, 3 phones and two permanent address but things were very different that time, neither of us were having even a permanent address. After few years, I never able to trace her back, finally I lost a friend due to telephone or due to bill, no due to my misery, still now I try to find her sons in the social networking site. At the stroke of this millennium, one of my client from abroad refused to work with me unless and until I change my internet connection from Dial-Up to lease line. When I gone through the charges of lease line, gosh, I had a very strong heart which survived and strong chair too, it hold me before falling down.
A pager was worse and even more terrifying; no soon, you got a message you have to rush to the nearest booth to make a phone call. Imagine somebody having a bit nice time, at middle of the night in a quite place (every one have the right to do so) and got a pager from wifey.
Thanks to the Internet, the Babu’s at the Telecom office realized that the office and a new connection was not their paternal property.
Of Course, I will remember Sir Alexander Graham Bell for other thing, he was the person who introduced Helen Keller to a wonderful human named Anne Mansfield Sullivan (Macy) and I feel that magic was even bigger.
When first time I landed in Mumbai (then Bombay), to get a telephone connection you have to bribe the peoples from top to bottom and if you wanted it very fast then the amount of bribe, hold your breath it was something around twenty five thousand, unless you know somebody over there (its always happens yar). Back home Kolkata it was then a prize possession and even in early nineties the telephone in our house was always dead like a cold body lying in the morgue; only difference was that sometime there was a bit sign of life I mean in the instrument which installed and always lying in our sitting room. Early eighties I was calling a friend in Dubai, on those days an ISD call means minimum three hundred rupees. She was Egyptian, English was alien to her, and even I could speak Arabic very fluently but not writing it. When Last time I talked, her chips were down for something and I was speechless for a moment, before I could gather myself telephone line disconnected. So paying 300 bucks every time was not a mater of joke. Today I am armed with seven email accounts, 3 phones and two permanent address but things were very different that time, neither of us were having even a permanent address. After few years, I never able to trace her back, finally I lost a friend due to telephone or due to bill, no due to my misery, still now I try to find her sons in the social networking site. At the stroke of this millennium, one of my client from abroad refused to work with me unless and until I change my internet connection from Dial-Up to lease line. When I gone through the charges of lease line, gosh, I had a very strong heart which survived and strong chair too, it hold me before falling down.
A pager was worse and even more terrifying; no soon, you got a message you have to rush to the nearest booth to make a phone call. Imagine somebody having a bit nice time, at middle of the night in a quite place (every one have the right to do so) and got a pager from wifey.
Thanks to the Internet, the Babu’s at the Telecom office realized that the office and a new connection was not their paternal property.
Finally mobile arrived in India, in beginning it was just a status symbol and occasionally used for an outgoing calls and mostly to those three free numbers which provided by company. Most of the time incoming call remains unanswered.
After Reliance started their operation, a total freedom to incoming calls, and outgoing charges too reduced every day, handset was very reachable. I was happy with my landline but one day I also got mobile with a cell phone and not with Mobil.
After accruing the gadget of course with a lifeline (SIM), I also joined the league of ‘walk and talk’. I love to interact with myself a lot, with a mobile in my hand and while walking down the lane alone can pretend to talk and that too with myself, crazy thing to do, no because –
!!!In this world there is only one who will listen to you constantly and enjoy your smile unconditionally, that is you.!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment