Hello, My Dear Wrong Number

Recently when I asked my students, ‘How many have seen a dial-based telephone instrument?’, only three hands went up.  Then I realised that my students, belonging to generation Z, were born, when the traditional dial-based telephones were almost replaced by push button telephone instruments.  My thoughts went back by 25 years to 1997.

It was a Saturday evening, the day on which I used to make telephone call to my parents from Ahmedabad.  After the dinner I went to the nearby Public Call Office (PCO-telephone booth) from where I used to make the call.  Every PCO had a small closed-door cabin from where the call had to be made.  There was a digital meter on which the duration of the call and call charges were displayed.  This was visible for people standing outside.  Most of us used to make long distance STD calls after 8 in the night, because the tariff was comparatively low.  As usual, there was a long queue of people waiting at the PCO.  When my turn came, I went inside, as soon as I pressed the STD code of Kochi, even before I could press the number, I started getting a message, ‘All lines to this route are busy, please try after some time’.  When I continued trying, the next person in the queue, who could see from outside that my call was not getting connected, started knocking on the door.  I came out and joined the queue again. 

Almost after an hour of waiting, the call got connected.  My father picked the phone, spoke for few seconds, handed over to my mother and then to my brother.  This was the order every time I called.  Our talks used to be very short and crisp with customary phrases like, how are you, had your dinner, how is your health, how is the weather etc.  I used to keep an eye on the meter to make sure that the call charges are within my limits! 

I had a friend from Bihar.  His girlfriend was living in a small town in Bihar.  He used to accompany me to the PCO.  One day, his call got connected in the first attempt itself.  But I saw him immediately disconnecting the call and coming out.  I asked him, ‘what happened?’, he said in Hindi, ‘her father lifted the phone, let me try after some time’.  And when he tried after some time, the same old message started coming, ‘all lines to this route are busy….’!!  The PCO owner had a tacit approval of his love story, because he made good money whenever my friend called his girlfriend and spoke at length. 

When I joined SIT, I used to visit a PCO owned by a differently abled person in front of the campus.  There were many PCOs near the campus.  Today, none of them are seen.  Look at the current generation.  They carry a phone in their pocket.  They can talk to anyone anywhere in the world instantly.  Why just talk, they can even make a video call, that too for less than 1% of what we used to pay for a short STD call those days.  Today, the phone is not just for calling, almost everything is done through the phone.  1997 to 2022, telecommunication is probably the sector that has seen maximum changes during these 25 years.

When my father applied for a telephone connection in 1980s, we had to wait for six long years to get the connection.  We got a nice number 223222.  There was a popular driving school at Kochi with a telephone number similar to that of ours, with difference of just one digit.  So, the usual conversation in my house used to be:

Tring… Tring…

Hello Driving School?

Sorry, wrong number!

Fifty-Fifty

Fifty (50) is a number that has appeared in my life in many ways on many occasions.  Perhaps, no other number has been part of my life as much as 50.  My earliest memory of 50 is the class tests in my school.  All class tests were evaluated for 50 marks and the passing marks was 17½.  So, whenever a teacher returned the test papers after evaluation, the first look was always on the numerator, because the denominator was known – 50!  Fifty paise, also known as ‘8 annas’, was a big amount during my childhood.  I could buy a handful of chocolates with 50 paise. 

I started playing cricket when I was in high school.  50 is an important number in cricket as well – one day international matches are played for 50 overs and a batsman always aims to score minimum 50 runs, if not 100.  I wrote 12 examinations in my tenth standard board examination – all out of 50.  When I joined Pre-Degree, 50% became a daunting target, which I failed to score, making me ineligible for admission to professional courses like engineering.

In my college, I learnt the first lessons in probability with the example of tossing a coin, where the probability of getting a head or a tail was 50%.  During my Post Graduation, I was actively involved in various programmes and celebrations related to the golden jubilee of my college – the college was founded 50 years ago.  Two years later, when I attended the selection process for the post of Academic Associate at IIM Ahmedabad, I was the first in the waitlist.  When I asked the administrative officer, what were the chances of me getting the offer, he said ‘Fifty-fifty’!

Next year the whole country celebrated 50 years of India’s independence. During the same period, I appeared twice for the Final examinations of ICWAI.   In both the attempts, I cleared all individual subjects, but failed to get the group aggregate, which was 50%.  I became a full-time teacher in 1998.  50 has never left me since then – I have been grading my students as part of internal assessment for 50 marks for the last 24 years.  I was involved with the golden jubilee celebrations of SIT, my current Institute in 2013.  Two years ago, it was the fiftieth wedding anniversary of my parents.  I am sure they would have celebrated the same up there in heaven.  Within few months from now, I will reach another milestone of 50 in my life!

By the way, this is my fiftieth post in my blog – Reflections.  I started Reflections in October 2012.  But I was not very regular in writing.  Last year, I resumed writing more frequently.  In fact, 36 of the 50 posts were written during the last one year.  Reflections has received a total of 8,772 views as on today.  The write up on Prof. K Balakrishnan, my mentor at IIMA remains at the top with 676 views.  Let me thank all my readers, whose support, encouragement, and feedback were the greatest motivation to write.  Anticipating your continued support, let me embark on the journey towards the next 50.