Tele-pangs: the funny side up

Have you ever spent a day without a phone call? I would be surprised if someone said 'yes' here. Even though we have more advanced and better communication means these days, the necessity and importance of a telephone still remains the same. We have email, we have chatting on the Internet, we have net meetings and we can even meet at places. But the fun and excitement of talking over the phone is simply indescribable.

I would say telephone is ... FUN. People use telephone for many important reasons, but for us, it's one of the main and easy way for "addabaji". I'll tell you why. Once, you know, when I was extremely bored, I called up my next-door friend to tell him to come over. And guess what? He told me that he was going to have a blast party right at that moment and invited me to join in. He later said sorry for forgetting to tell me earlier. I told him: 'OK, bye I'LL BE there in 5 mins.' I quickly washed my face put on some party clothes asked my mom very earnestly and she let me go. (She's not all that bad compared to my dad!) So you see, guys, how telephone plays a very significant role in our daily activities!

But sometimes it's very irritating too. When I'm expecting a very special call, if someone just calls up and keeps bokor bokoring, one feels like squeezing him/her to death. Friends call me up for no reason at all during my mom's lovely lecture and sometimes test my sense of patience.

Well, what my friends and me usually do is make up some code language (which includes names, places and incidents) for any happening event or let's just say- hot news. Since my closest friend lives in the same neighbourhood, he may simply call me and tell me go downstairs or go up to the roof and talk to him (if it's urgent) or we may talk over the telephone using our code language. It sounds really funny, you know, and my mom can't help but laugh- she finds it extremely funny.

But there are also other uses of the telephone, there are loads of people who have nothing to do at all (one of my friends) and what they do is just ring a number and if the receiver is a young lady, they try to talk. This happened to me many times and let me share one of the incidents with you.

A guy probably 16/17 called me up and asked me, "Um, could I speak to Sohel please?" I simply told him "Sorry I think you've dialed the wrong number". I was about to hang up when he said "Wait, I'm quite sure this is the right number - you must be his cousin or probably younger sister, may I know your name please?"
"Sorry, I don't talk to strangers." Slam!

That's what some people (I know?) try to do! Call up any number and try to make friends with these people. Sometimes when my mom receives the phone calls of these type of guys she keeps suspecting me (you know parents!) But in my case I would say I'm very lucky. Because you know some parents do not even let their children receive any sort of calls accepts for the ones THEY feel is ok to be friends with. This neighbourhood friend of mine, has to face some problems like that. Apart from the 4 to 5 known friends, if any other call comes, she has had it then; both her parents keep scolding her and grounds her. They even beat her up if they notice even minute changes in her daily activities.

But it's not that people only use the telephone for fun. Telephone becomes quite handy in times of emergency. For example, we use it for calling ambulances, inquiring about airlines, calling the police as well as the newspaper offices. My dad uses it for official purposes and my mom uses it for keeping track of my brother and me when we are out of the house. And most importantly, we use telephone for communication. This time, I mean REAL communication. As in, my chacha calls us from London, despite our exchanges of emails. Talking directly over the phone really means something else; sometimes it gives
the feeling of talking face-to-face.

It's fairly perplexing to see how different people make use of the telephone. Phone is meant for an easier way to communicate and people of our age (including me) do not sometimes understand the real meaning of possessing a phone.

By Armeen Kabir