It’s been almost 5 years since I started using a cell phone. I still remember how my parents and friends opposed me for applying a BSNL sim card, the only service provider with affordable call rates during those days. With in almost 6 months, I changed the sim to Airtel as they came up with some good offers for students. Since then I have changed my number around 6 times. Even after I joined work, the call rates was a major concern as majority of my calls were STD. Guess this term no more exists just like the term Trunk Call vanished almost a decade back. If you ask a kid what STD stands for, he might say it’s Sexually Transmitted Disease. Thanks to the Mobile Tariff war!!
Anyways I am not going to discuss on the Tariff war or the 3G auctions which is a hot topic these days. Let people who are supposed to do that do it with style and passion!! Last week I changed my plan to some paisa per second plan and I stopped using the other number, which was used for my personal calls. As always the biggest task while changing the number is to update others about the change and then to copy your contacts to the new sim. Instead of copying it directly to the new sim, this time around I decided to sit down and do it manually reading it from the old sim and entering it in the new one. I decided to do it not because I had lots of free time, but just wanted to know all those silent, unwanted, dead and numb contacts who has been copied right from 2005. And to much of my astonishment, out of around 550+ contacts, around 200 were a clear “NUMB” lot. The rest were the usual people whom I am in touch, a few of my clients, a few common friends, other acquaintances and my relatives. I felt like straining the list again, but some how did not do it considering the man power involved it.
Going through the list was great fun. There was this guy who used to take my bike for service when I used to stay in Trichur, the sweeper at IMS,Cochin who used to share cigarettes during breaks, the bartender at a famous Bar in Cochin, the Constable at Trichur East Police station, the girls whom I had a crush on, automobile dealers and mechanics who participated in our show, the guy who installed net in my home, my dad’s colleagues’ daughter whom I used to give lots of career gyans but ended up marrying a fat NRI in spite of her dreams, unknown friends in the college, many girls whose names sound so sweet and hot now, but a majority whose numbers never existed anymore. These are the numbers I stored during my college days, a majority of them whom I lost touch with , a minority whom I am still in touch and another few whom I don’t want to be in touch , but would like their contact numbers to be in my list. I am sure every one will have such a lot whom you will never contact but is very keen on having his/her name and contact details in your phone book.
Coming to the next level of list proved a little that I have matured over the years. Yes, numbers which I stored when I joined my first job in Chennai was completely different from what I had before. Even though all the people in my contacts managed themselves to screw into my new sim, the second lot of list was indeed interesting. The HR people in the firm, whom I was in touch with when I had to post pone my DOJ after I met with an accident just before the joining date, the doctor who treated me and told that my lungs are perfectly black because of the home work I did for 4 years sitting in the cosy men’s hostel room, my new colleagues, new friends, cab drivers, the girl who happened to sit next to me in a bus journey, a friend whom I helped to run away with his girl, the man who gave me company at the Taj Fisher Man’s Cove making me sit and listen to his story till 4 am in ECR, the cop who helped me out with Tamil tips for squeezing out of police stations. Aaah, the list told me a lot of stories, of which many I still cherish and a few which I would like to forget.
The contacts I added at Hyderabad were almost like a reverse osmosis. It was more like my college days except for the fact I was working and earning a living. But from drug dealers to ICICI bank loan guy to the unknown friend who gave me his brand new Hyundai i10 to me for a test drive after having almost a litre of whisky, the new avatar who joined office to make my life at work even more miserable, the room boy at a village hotel in Orissa who narrated me about the Maoists Dacoits and how they loved to kidnap people like me, the auto driver with whom I travelled for almost 75kms through a non existent road somewhere near to Karnool in AP, to meet a cement baron with whom I had to get a payment, my flat mate who knew how exactly to loot his dad’s bank account, the guy who stayed next door who had a large photo of himself standing with Bal Thackeray at the door and how he insisted me to learn Marathi and join politics, the ambulance driver who took the dead body whom I was responsible for cremation etc etc.. Hyderabad has always amazed me, the city, the people, the isolation, the realisation and the experience I had over there.
Then was the last leg, Bangalore:The city with no Soul . There were two reasons why I shifted to B’lore rather than to Amchi Mumbai as pre planned. The first reason being the proximity to another South Indian City whose name and the reason which I don’t want to specify and secondly to get rid off the great life and habits I gained at Hyderabad and to stay with people whom I know and to regain my lost life. The same had an impact on my list of contacts too. Though the regular list of culprits made their position clear, a majority was my new client list and other professional contacts and a few good friends whom I made over here. Of all the three legs, at least now I feel I am matured enough to celebrate my silver jubilee in this planet.
This might sound strange to many who are reading this. But, somehow I could recollect a life time’s story from my phone book. There might be many more who didn’t make it to the list and a few whom I didn’t mention but is still a major part of my life. The world is changing, the climate, so do people, priorities and my phone book!!! A group message and a group mail to everyone mentioning about my change of number didn’t turn out to be that successful enough to wake up those dead contacts as it was the usual lot who reverted to that. And there were another lot of people whom I contacted only online and never wanted to take the risk of sharing their numbers. I hope everyone who has associated with me and my phone book is doing good without much of mischievous plans and getting into the never ending loop of the life’s vicious circle…
