Those of you who have visited my photo album recently know that I had visited Dwarka some weeks ago. The trip was amazing, the temple even more so but before leaving I was harrowed by a small seemingly insignificant problem. Our home landline, the BSNL standard issue phone had clonked out. And it had clonked out exactly 12 hours before I was supposed to leave for Dwarka and so I feared that i'd have no way of being in touch with my grandparents who were staying back at home and not accompanying us on this trip. I tried my best to get the phone working again, checked the wiring for any snapped ends and even followed the wires to the core, but to no avail. The darn phone just wouldnt work.
Finally as a last resort, I went upstairs and grabbed the spare Nokia 1203 which we had kept for an emergency in case any of our mobile phones ever stopped working. I didnt have a Sim Card so went out and bought a 30 rupee Idea Card and along with it a 30 rupee recharge and activated the phone. Now in front of me lay the Herculean task of teaching my grandfather how to use a mobile phone. My grandpa, has always been quite techno-savvy or atleast he thought he was so. He loves to fiddle around with the remote control of the TV and the music system and also enjoys operating the microwave, the ummmm....... (that machine jis-se gheun ka aata banta hai) and also the air cooler. So when I asked him whether he would be comfortable with a mobile phone he was like "ya, dikhao mujhe, how hard can it be".
So I showed him the phone. Its a tiny phone with an even smaller keypad. So I locked the keypad on the phone and told him "whenever the phone rings, just press this Green button.
"Ok" he said "And to disconnect"?. "Nevermind that" I replied, "the person who has called will disconnect the phone himself". So he said "okkay, fine. I got it". Then he asked me the procedure for making a call. But then I pondered that to do so, first i'd have to show him how to unlock they keypad and then initiate a call. And if by chance he forgot to disconnect the call then the entire balance would get eaten up and even the incoming calls would be barred. Not wanting to tell him that I thought 'the process for making a outgoing call was too complex for him to understand', I lied to him saying that the Outgoing facility has not yet been activated on the phone. "Okkay" he said looking forlorn "Then call me every 2-3 hours". I agreed and told him that i'll be in constant touch with him.
During the trip, I spoke to him throughout and asked him if he was comfortable with the phone. He's like "ha, badhu saru chhe, pan phone halto reh chhe khisa ma jya sudhi hun ene upadto nathi" (Ya, everything is okkay with it, but the phone keeps moving in my pocket until I pick it up).
I slapped my forehead cursing myself because I had forgotten to disable the vibration feature on it. Anyway, the phone served its purpose and I got back home 3 days later. The phone my 90 year old grandpa was using had an 'Idea' SIM card in it, but I really really doubt that he "walked while he talked". I called the BSNL guys later in the day and got them to come home, identify the fault and rectify it. They did so (after charging me 50 rupees for 'chai-paani'). The next day, I went to my dadaji and asked to take the phone back but he was of the opinion that he should keep it active since I had already paid for its 6 months of validity. "Thats true" I said "but you'll have to charge this phone every 2 days. Instead be happy with the BSNL phone which doesnt require anything". But he didnt want to give it up. "Fine" I said..... and I was really exasperated "keep it".
2 days ago, I spotted another eldery person living in our society talking with him on our porch. And I saw my grandpa take the little Nokia out of his pocket and talk into it (No doubt showing off to that other 90 year old person that he now owned a mobile phone). I laughed and went back to studying. Late that night around 2 am, I came downstairs to drink some water and had just opened the refrigerator, when I spotted an eerie white light in the hallway. Terrified, I grabbed my cricket bat and approached the source of the light. It was my dadaji using the torch on the phone and lighting up the way towards the bathroom. I asked him the next day who taught him how to switch on the torch and he said that I had left the instruction manual in the box. And the Nokia guys had printed the booklet inside in English, Hindi as well as Gujarati so he had no problems learning how to use the various facilities in the phone.
