What a transformation of communication system in my own life time. The revolution made in the communication sector is some thing amazing. One cannot believe one’s eyes or ears that the communication especially tele-communication could do such great strides.
I cannot forget those days when our telephone system was run manually by an operator sitting in her room. The wire connection used to be taken from the telephone office to the house of the consumer. The instrument did not have any dialing system. The Receiver set used to be heavy and big and to carry it from one place to another was a bit difficult. It is just a box with an alarm system. When one wanted to talk to another subscriber in the town he should take the phone and ask the operator for connection. She would ask from the other side the number one wanted to speak. She would connect to the requested number and ask the person to talk. The Operator always used to be a female.
. I should not forget to mention that they had almost a star status in the town. Even today, I do not understand the reason why they were given that status. May be, they were always in direct connection with both rich and poor. Or may be only female with whom one could talk directly when talking to female was taboo in those days. That is not what I wanted to say. I wanted to show their importance and perhaps this made them very important persons in the town.
Each call used to be of three minutes duration. I do not understand who fixed this three minute limit. Even now it is followed. Then at the end of the three minutes, the call was disconnected. If the subscriber wanted to continue one had to call again. Receiving the call was in the same manner. The operator used to give a ring to alert the subscriber that he had a call, she would announce the number and ask him to speak.
In those days to have a telephone was considered as a status symbol. It always used to be kept in the entrance room of the house so that people who visit should know that you were one of the lucky ones to own a telephone. The entire neighbourhood would depend on that person for receiving messages. We were one of the very few who got telephone installed both in our house and in our business premises. Our number at our business house was 408 and residence was 879. Same base number continued till recently when we disconnected the phone numbers due to entry of new operators.
In those days to speak to another town, one had to book what are called as trunk call. Even today it is in vogue. It is so called because the calls were transmitted through trunk lines of the telephone department. One had to wait for hours together to get connection and since aam aadmi did not have phone facility at their residences or business places, they had to go to the nearest post office and book the calls and wait for their turn. There used to be a long list of people wanted to speak .The post office and telephone department were under the same department at that time and hence the post offices used to be the place where one had to go to book calls. Thereafter the Department introduced what is called as ‘urgent calls’ for which one had to pay two times of the regular charges. Then they introduced what is called as ‘Lightening calls’ in which one would get the connection over all other calls instantly at seven times the regular charges.
International calls have their own story to tell. They were very precious calls. One had to book the call at least a few days in advance and wait for the call from the Exchange. While booking the call, the duration of the call had to be stated in multiples of three minutes and under no circumstances the time would be extended. If one wanted to continue the talk, he or she had to book the call once again and go through the same grueling moments of waiting for the call from the Operator.
My mother used to talk to her nephew who was in London. As stated above, the connection used to be routed through the operator. She would always listen to you as she had to see that the connection did not snap or the time allotted was over. My mother had a habit of saying “ do you hear me” because those International calls always had one way transmission. Both could not talk simultaneously. Therefore in order to assure herself that the nephew could hear her, she would say’ do you hear me’ The interesting part is the role of the operator. She would interject and tell my mother that she should not worry about it but go on talking. In case he did not hear my mother, she would repeat it. Privacy was not the order of the day. I think if the said system was there, police could have laid their hands on all these conversations of anti-social elements and we would have got more security.
In spite of all those difficulties, I wanted a telephone connection for my office and I was told that there was a long waiting list and unless new lines were released, no new connection could be given. Even in that list there were categories such as VIP quota, doctor’s quota, Social Service Workers quota etc etc. Applicants always try to put them in such priority list and try to overtake others. There were some connections which were called as ‘temporary connections.’ That connection used to be given on the basis of urgency for a short period of three months. One should make out a case for ‘urgency’ Thereafter, if the consumer wanted further extention then he had to pay two times of the monthly consumption charges. The said connection would be disconnected at the end of six months.
Before I conclude let me tell an important anecdote on this telephone connection. My mother fell a victim of paralysis and hence she had to be moved from one room to another in a wheel chair. But telephone being a fixed line, the same could not be taken along with her. Hence I talked to one of the linesmen, and he agreed to give a 5 meter long extra wire to the line from the telephone point. It proved to be a boon for me and my mother as we could carry the phone with her chair. As ill luck would have it, when an inspector came to supervise some repair work of the phone, he saw this extra wire and immediately we got a notice from the Department for the ‘unpardonable crime’ we had made threatening notice to disconnect the phone and also collect penalty for ‘misuser’ of the telephone line. One had to pay Rs. 40/- monthly rent for such extensions.
However the revolution in the telecommunication field has brought a tremendous change in this system. Now it is a different world altogether. Communication has become as important as staple food. People cannot live without phones. One need not write about the modern gadgets and the systems that are available in the market. There is a joke prevalent in this part of the country where it is said that in villages whenever any guest comes to visit, the host would call the coconut plucker, who is already at the top of the tree to pluck two more tender coconuts by talking to him on mobile.
When I look back on the path we walked, I always feel how difficult the life was. But sometimes I feel that there was fun, liveliness and challenges which made life more interesting and worth living All those adventures have vanished and everything is now given on a platter.