COMMUNICATION GADGETS
Times were when India survived on systems like post cards,
inland letters, postal covers readily distributed to any spot in the country.
Till 1990s or so, domestic telephones were in the houses of Doctors, Judges and
ministers; the item was placed on a high pedestal and veiled by a thin
transparent cloth partly exhibiting the physique much like a movie actress in steep demand.
Only after 1995 or so,
the stuff became a DOMESTIC FACILITY FOR MIDDLE CLASS / UPPER MIDDLE CLASS
Citizens, who waited for 3 years to be blessed with a phone. The wait [3 years]
did not cause A RIPPLE, AS THEY HAD LIVED THEIR LIVES WITHOUT PHOINE all those
years. [Now,children are unable to stay quiet for half-an- hour without a cell
phone].
When more houses sought to have the facility, there was a
real boom in telecommunication industry. People were nervous to have STD link, fearing indiscriminate calls to
relatives; those who had it for their children to reach the parents, resorted to get protected by
‘Dynamic locking’ to preclude use by anyone without the concurrence of elders
at home. In a matter of 3 + years, came a device called ‘PAGER’ with a readable
screen; crazy men used to mount their pager on to the hip and walk around like
high profile police officials. MANY WITH A ELECTRONIC DEVICE STRAPPED TO THE
HIP,RESEMBLED PATIENTS LINKED TO HIGH PROFILE NURSING HOMES.
Pager was of no use to speak across; one can text 2-3 line
messages- a practically worthless facility. So, had its fastest ‘death’ and
none recalls even its name. Abruptly, appeared the ‘CELL PHONE’- a tiny biscuit
like stuff with good memory and rapid access to numbers at will. For the first
time, phone users were free to walk through and still speak across.. Availing
of this human weakness, service providers started fleecing the customer on the
pretext of roaming. With the cell phone in hand, girls and boys were more”
ROMEO” ing even without roaming. Slowly
in Free India, citizens grew slaves to cell phones. Now, each one has 2 or more
phones -ANDROID, GYNOID and what not. They have far reaching potential by way
of Audio, visual, text, videos, voice messages WhatsApp facility and a host of others. Youngsters
[adolescents] run berserk with these phones and cause substantial social agony;
parents are equally guilty providing these gadgets to children aged 6 or 7 with
no concern for anyone’s well being. How
once, we had a peaceful life? From our
days of peace of mind, we have come to days of pieces of mind.
Prof. K. Raman
You have mentioned android and gynoid phones . Funny to hear. I expect in future gynandroid phones too.After my daughter got married to a boy settled in US , I tried to get a landline phone from BSNL. After waiting for six months I got a phone connection . But alas ! To speak to her I had to spend Rs50/minute .
ReplyDeleteFor a local call they charged Rs1.50 and for STD the charges depend on the time you spent.
Now in WhatsApp without spending money I can speak to her for a long time. I thank the telecommunication dept. for the facilities offered to us. Whenever we go in for top up to our cell we enquire about various offers given by the company. If not satisfied we switch over to another company without changing our cell number.
K.Venkataraman
Android-Gynoid.. hahaha
ReplyDeleteNice article on telecommunication revolution. Now most of our banking and financial transactions are carried out through smart phones, apart from entertainment needs
ReplyDelete