THE BELL

 THE BELL

Of the so many items known to humans, what makes this item so significant would be a point of astonishment for many. Be that as it may – let us look at this item for its ubiquitous occurrence. Literally, every human endeavour has a place for the bell. A casual evaluation reveals that the item has enough ‘avatars’ big and small besides form and shape. 

Office manager

Till recently personnel designated ‘Managers’ had a compact bell on the table which could generate a ‘ting’ or a longer ‘’trinnng”. The former is a plain stuff while the latter is a spring trigger. Such signals were meant to draw the attendant to the chamber for further directives to the person. Lately, such ‘old fashioned bell‘ is replaced by ‘buzzer’ which draws the attention of most at the same time. Based on the number of times the buzzer sounds, either the attendant or some other official visits the chamber to take instructions. Even ‘paperless’ offices are not noiseless. Why so much?  How do we realize our getting a phone call?  Only by bell or some chime which calls attention.

Hotel Manager

Another person known to keep a bell on his table is the hotel manager of yester decades. Mostly those were traditional hotels providing typical ‘regional’ food like tiffin in the forenoon, lunch in the afternoon, tiffin by evening  through night. In such places, sounding the bell was resorted to by manager to invite the ‘service personnel’ to attend to the needs of customer[s].

Vendors

In our day to day life, every vendor, delivery boy, gas distribution agency manages to call attention by activating the ‘call bell’ at our doorstep. In multi-storey structures, every apartment has the chime facility. Some of them are pneumatically operated to preclude inactive states during power shut down.

POOJA ROOM

Most houses have a secluded arrangement for worship respectfully christened ‘The Pooja Room’. With all images and idols in place, worship by pooja occurs frequently. On all such occasions, the offerings and holy camphor lighting are accompanied by sounding a small bell –bronze or silver to generate a holy fervor of divine nature, under the pervading influence of holy lights. In some traditional house hold ancestral bell is maintained with all reverence for offering domestic pooja / “Aradhana”. Such bells are relatively large, made of bronze and they reverberate by resonance.

THE SCHOOL

Another place to notice the bell is the school. Unlike the hitherto cited instances, schools generally use a  short segment of the rail , hung from a tree branch by heavy wire. The method of ‘sounding’ the bell is to hit with a heavy iron rod. It marks the start or end of the session –as required. The closure for the day’s work is by long bell.  Lon bell is an unwritten practice by which any unforeseen closure could be effectively conveyed.

COLLEGES

Colleges have class rooms spread out across the campus. So, the different class rooms spread over the entire campus need to be simultaneously alerted of ‘start’ or ‘stop’. It is convenient to operate electric bells installed at different buildings and served by a common switch. Long bell service is also utilized in colleges.

TEMPLES AND CHURCHES

Temples and Churches have mega size bells –specially cast for generating heavy noise. It notifies the onset of preparations for prayer or procession from a place of worship. Being of a massive dimension, they are mounted in high towers; with a long rope, the bell or the heavy rod within is dragged to bring off noise. Such bells have fairly long resonance.

THE RAILWAYS

Without exception all stations on Indian Railways use ‘the bell’ mostly in the form of ‘rail bit’ or Gong. The latter is hit by wooden hammer and the former by iron rod. There is a defined way of using the bell to notify the train arrival. Train arrivals are indicated by 2 stages called ‘block’ or ‘out’. If a train has arrived at the previous station, it is ‘block’ and if the train is on the way to the present station it is ‘out’. Also, ‘block’ intimation is preceded by a long series of hits ending in 3 hits [train bound northward] or 2 hits [train bound southward]; ‘out’ is directly intimated by 3 hits or 2 hits.

Besides we set our alarm bell for alerting us to get up early on specific requirements. Thus, all through the day AND OUR LIFE every occasion has some bell or the other keeping track of our needs. 

Prof. K. Raman