A Nice Ring

Remember when all phones had the same ringtone? In fact, no one used the term ringtone then. All phones were black and looked about the same. The first time I looked at a phone up close was in my grandfather's house a long time ago. I was about three then I think. The rotating dial with the characteristic sound it made when numbers were dialed was fascinating. By the way, if you thought I was talking cell phones, I would say that you are either too young to have known the rotary phones or old enough to have forgotten them.

When I was a little older, we got a phone of our own, courtesy of my father's employer. This phone did not have a dialing mechanism at all but when you picked up the handset off the cradle, you got the operator at the exchange who asked, 'Number please?'. We were living in a small town which was serviced by a manual exchange. You had to be connected at the switchboard to the number you wished to call. I wonder now if the operator had the ability to listen in on the calls. 

Getting a phone in India was such big deal for the longest time. So much so, having one in your house sometimes turned out to be a nuisance as neighbours made use of it to make and receive calls. But this also provided an opportunity for some. They would allow neighbours to make calls but place a box for contributions discretely (!) next to the phone. Local shops with phone connections allowed nearby residents to use their number to receive calls. You would call the shop and ask to be connected to Mr. So and so in A-3. They would charge the recipient of course but the service included sending the boy to fetch the customer when a call came through. When I first came to the US, it was quite a dramatic change from all this. Here I could just walk into an telephone shop and walk out with an instrument of my choice. The service would be turned on in a day or less. A revolutionary concept to me then. 

Phone service in India has come a long way now but it was a slow journey for the most part. I remember having to book long distance calls and wait as there was no direct dialing. In an emergency, you placed what was referred to as a lightning call (meaning the charges would accumulate at lightning speed!). When the call came through, you had to be quick to get your message across before the operator interrupted the call to announce 'Threeee... minutes'. Since you paid for a minimum of three minutes, you did not want to be too quick either. Obviously, trunk calls were only used to communicate really urgent news. Usually this meant bad news making people apprehensive when they received such a call. But nowadays one can call internationally and chat for hours for pennies. And feel not a tinge of nervousness when someone calls from abroad. 

Direct calling to India from the US was not available for many years and one had to go through the operator paying exorbitant charges. When it did become available, it was still quite difficult to get through. You often got a message that said, 'Due to heavy congestion in the country you are calling, your call did not complete'. It was bad enough not being able to get through but the bad grammar on top of that was like rubbing salt on the wound. 'Complete' is a transitive verb for God's sake. It reminded me of other statements like, 'The product will begin shipping Thursday'. Shipping what? But I digress.
 
The instruments themselves have evolved from the simple black phone into all sorts of shapes, from desk phones to wall models, and culminated in the cordless phones with features like speed dialing and digital answering machine. By far the feature that was most heavily used by expatriate Indians, I am sure was the last number redial. It allowed you to keep retrying your call rapidly (and cut off the annoying message short too) until you got through. This feature was also highly touted by Hyacinth in the series Keeping Up Appearances ('I must answer my white, slimline telephone with last number redial, it's bound to be someone important').

Cell phones have pushed the so called land lines to the background and many people have even dispensed with them altogether now. If you still have one, you receive so many telemarketing calls that it is seriously annoying. Things have changed in other ways too.You might recall dramatic movie scenes where the bad guy disconnects the call by pressing the button on the cradle just as the damsel in distress is about to be complete it. Can you imagine that with a cell phone? And gone are scenes where people received calls at restaurants with the waiter bringing a phone to the table and plugging it into a nearby socket. 

I think the advent of personal cell phones has also changed family dynamics considerably. Before them, everyone relied on the one line in the house. There was contention to use it, and angry outbursts ensued when someone hogged the line for long periods. Parents knew whom the children were talking to and sort of knew what was going on with them. There was less privacy and perhaps fewer secrets. When calls came for someone who was out, messages had to be taken. A little note pad and a pen were kept by the phone for this purpose. Family friends got an opportunity to chat up the children when they answered.  

With everyone having their personal phone I wonder if we have lost something. The family phone created an invisible bond that is now gone. The family phone - it has a nice ring to it, don't you think?