** COMMUNICATION. (or, Lack of it ….)
sent on 26 Sep 2004 by rajappa
From the time of BIG BANG, Man has devised ways and means of communicating. From smokes and drums of Africans, from Kalidasa’s Sakuntala beckoning megh (cloud) to take her letter, from using pigeons to carry messages (as in Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin), the human race was in continuous process of evolving better and more efficient methods to convey messages.
Cut to 19th Century when British brought the Postal System to India – it was a revolution. Have you ever stopped to wonder that with just fifty paise, you can send your views and news across from one corner of India to another, maybe 3000km away? Not a joke, but real. Buy a postcard today; write a message; post it to me. Be convinced.
People used the postal service with enthusiasm. “Sandeshe aate hain, chitti aathi hai ….” was a super-duper HIT because it touched the emotional chords of crores of Indians. The sight of the postman approaching your house pumped adrenalin and produced a kaleidoscope of emotions in you – where from, who from, what news ….. When we were in Babu Rao St, we were impatient to wait for the postman to come, so we rushed to the PO at 8AM to get our letters then and there only. It is quite another thing that our father GRS and anna GSR were there already and the pm would give the letters to them only!!
Each one of us in GRS family, mostly, was a prolific letter-writer those days. Our amma was the BEST; in beautiful handwriting, without a single ‘adiththal, thiruththal’, her weekly letters were gems. Contents, style, grammar, presentation – everything was of top order. Equally good was appa; his English was superb. Manni, Anna, Padma akka, KVS athimber (his one postcard is equal to one A4 paper), Sundaresan (he writes even today), Saroja akka, Vijaya, Savithri (full of interesting news), Sugavanam, Mangalam are some of the letter-writers of yore. (you can include me, if you wish). We used to convey our moments of happiness, periods of sadness, arrivals of newborn, celebrations, success in Exams, etc. through the postal system.
Then the telephones came. Each of us in the family got the connection. (I was wait-listed for over 3 years in Hyderabad before I got one.). We said, “We are CONNECTED!” People started bragging, “We don’t write letters – where is the TIME? – we use the PHONE only”. So, NO letters.
However, the brag remained just that – a BRAG. It was the most convenient way of shielding one’s laziness.
BSNL has reduced its rates to fabulous levels – today you can lift that phone and talk ‘within circle’ (like CHN-HOSUR, or CHN-MADURAI) for just 1.20 per minute! (Recently when I was in Salem, I talked to CHN for about 5 minutes – a long duration if you know – and was billed just 5.40 or so! Unbelievable.). If you want to talk to Tezpur from Kanyakumari or to Srinagar from Kochi, it is just 2.40 per minute (any time of the day). Or, 2.20 only if you have ‘special’ plan, like I do.
It is strange that people cannot afford even this amount. So, NO letters NO phone-calls.
Next brag was, “we don’t talk on phone, yaar – where is the TIME? - we e-mail only!” Emails?
Ha,ha,ha. You must be joking. When did you last SEND an email, my dear xxxxxx and yyyyyy (names changed to protect their identity)? So, NO emails, either.
NO letters, NO phone calls, NO emails. In short, NO communications. Life is very blissful, as it is said, “No News is Good News.”
Love,
Rajappa
**** My effort to create a 600-word article.(took 186 minutes!!)
26 Sept 2004 11:45 AM
sent on 26 Sep 2004 by rajappa
From the time of BIG BANG, Man has devised ways and means of communicating. From smokes and drums of Africans, from Kalidasa’s Sakuntala beckoning megh (cloud) to take her letter, from using pigeons to carry messages (as in Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin), the human race was in continuous process of evolving better and more efficient methods to convey messages.
Cut to 19th Century when British brought the Postal System to India – it was a revolution. Have you ever stopped to wonder that with just fifty paise, you can send your views and news across from one corner of India to another, maybe 3000km away? Not a joke, but real. Buy a postcard today; write a message; post it to me. Be convinced.
People used the postal service with enthusiasm. “Sandeshe aate hain, chitti aathi hai ….” was a super-duper HIT because it touched the emotional chords of crores of Indians. The sight of the postman approaching your house pumped adrenalin and produced a kaleidoscope of emotions in you – where from, who from, what news ….. When we were in Babu Rao St, we were impatient to wait for the postman to come, so we rushed to the PO at 8AM to get our letters then and there only. It is quite another thing that our father GRS and anna GSR were there already and the pm would give the letters to them only!!
Each one of us in GRS family, mostly, was a prolific letter-writer those days. Our amma was the BEST; in beautiful handwriting, without a single ‘adiththal, thiruththal’, her weekly letters were gems. Contents, style, grammar, presentation – everything was of top order. Equally good was appa; his English was superb. Manni, Anna, Padma akka, KVS athimber (his one postcard is equal to one A4 paper), Sundaresan (he writes even today), Saroja akka, Vijaya, Savithri (full of interesting news), Sugavanam, Mangalam are some of the letter-writers of yore. (you can include me, if you wish). We used to convey our moments of happiness, periods of sadness, arrivals of newborn, celebrations, success in Exams, etc. through the postal system.
Then the telephones came. Each of us in the family got the connection. (I was wait-listed for over 3 years in Hyderabad before I got one.). We said, “We are CONNECTED!” People started bragging, “We don’t write letters – where is the TIME? – we use the PHONE only”. So, NO letters.
However, the brag remained just that – a BRAG. It was the most convenient way of shielding one’s laziness.
BSNL has reduced its rates to fabulous levels – today you can lift that phone and talk ‘within circle’ (like CHN-HOSUR, or CHN-MADURAI) for just 1.20 per minute! (Recently when I was in Salem, I talked to CHN for about 5 minutes – a long duration if you know – and was billed just 5.40 or so! Unbelievable.). If you want to talk to Tezpur from Kanyakumari or to Srinagar from Kochi, it is just 2.40 per minute (any time of the day). Or, 2.20 only if you have ‘special’ plan, like I do.
It is strange that people cannot afford even this amount. So, NO letters NO phone-calls.
Next brag was, “we don’t talk on phone, yaar – where is the TIME? - we e-mail only!” Emails?
Ha,ha,ha. You must be joking. When did you last SEND an email, my dear xxxxxx and yyyyyy (names changed to protect their identity)? So, NO emails, either.
NO letters, NO phone calls, NO emails. In short, NO communications. Life is very blissful, as it is said, “No News is Good News.”
Love,
Rajappa
**** My effort to create a 600-word article.(took 186 minutes!!)
26 Sept 2004 11:45 AM
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