Phones

The other day after evening prayer the four of us sat chatting for a while. Divya and Pappa had been talking something about the fast pace of advancement in technology. I think it started with one of the occasional PJs (Pappa's joke) thrown around. When Amma said that she heard chickens when talking to my uncle ( he owns a poultry farm) on the phone, Pappa said she must have misdialled and called on the chicken's phone.

So the conversation veered towards animals owning cell phones in the not-so-far future. Then we veered to our past with cell phones. The first cell phone in the family was a tiny black Sony Ericson. Amma usually doesn't make assertive statements. But when I said that it was gifted to Pappa by George Vallyappachan (his brother) and pappa verbalized his two-peg agreement, Amma claimed, loudly, that it was Thomas Uncle, her brother, who'd gifted it. Pappa contentedly agreed to that too.

Everyone went into a reminiscent mood. The phone was an exciting development in our family. We even took pictures posing with it. And that's saying something because we're talking about film roll camera pictures. The mobile set had a small antenna. There was a small flap that covered the keypad, and opened on pressing a button on the side of the phone. Opening the flap during an incoming call was how you answered.

In those days, even incoming calls were charged. If I remember correctly, the charge was six rupees for answering a call and talking for 60 seconds. So Pappa usually didn't answer any calls, but looked at the incoming call's number and called them back from the landline. So the phone mostly just functioned as a mobile caller ID.

I remember one time when he did answer the call. It was when I was in junior school, at least 14 years ago. For some reason Pappa had to pick us, my sister and I, up from school. It was probably a half day, and the vehicle that usually ferried us wasn't running. A neighbour and family friend of ours also travelled in the same auto. So Pappa had undertaken to drop her home as well. But when he reached school and located us, we were unable to find Donna. She was the same age as Divya.

While we were still searching for her among the identically uniformed girls, Pappa's phone began ringing, the screen flashing Donna's home number. Pappa started thinking aloud-maybe they're checking if we've picked up Donna-maybe they have already picked her up and are calling to inform-I should answer-I'll lose money, but there's no other way to know-I have to get back to office soon-this is an emergency. And so he answered. Donna's mother informed him that she had already come home. "That wasn't avoidable", Pappa said looking at the screen after carefully disconnecting the call.

When anyone gets a new phone, they are extra careful about it, making sure it is softly placed on a large enough flat surface. As familiarity grows we're not loth to gently throw the set on a bed. So was the case with our Sony Eriksson. Earlier placed carefully on top of the fridge, and operated upon only when sitting down, its fatal accident took place in the bathroom.

Pappa was filling water in the buckets and talking over the phone one evening, when  it slipped from his hand and fell onto the wet bathroom floor. We've heard of phones surviving worse accidents, like Sabu Uncle's phone after a plunge into a steaming bowl of sambhar after its call vibration tipped the lid. But back in the day, fancy phones weren't half as sturdy. After gasping on for a few days, the Sony Eriksson finally beeped its last.

There wasn't another mobile phone in the family for many years. Then came along a new instrument - the MTNL Garuda. Quite tough-looking and with an extendable antenna, it was strange in the fact that it didn't function on a SIM card. It was a CDMA phone. It had a number similar to those of landlines, 8-digited and beginning with a 2.

I clearly remember the number because Pappa said that he'd specifically got it in a manner that was easy to remember. It began with 200314, and he explained that in 2003, I'd turned 14; the last two digits were 66, and that was the year my mother was born. I mentioned this to him during our chat and he and Divya began being dismissive about it, saying I could say any number and it wouldn't matter because they didn't remember any way. They probably took that stance because I claimed to remember the first phone's number too: 9810329501. But I'm positive that that's what it was.