SUNO G

 SUNO G

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

02/X/2022

 

            “Tauba-Tauba, Kya zamana aa gaya hai. Larka-Larki poora din telephone par baat karte hain.” This was a comment heard very often in the ‘Aunty’ circle, who noticed and commented on anything and everything in the good old days.

 

            Telephone was a ‘Raison ki Nishani.’ It was a ‘status symbol,’ not a ‘necessity’ then. We all talked face to face. Most of us landed up in each other’s place unannounced. The whole family on a bicycle would travel to ‘call on.’ Though the preferred mode of transport was walking.

 

            An open arm welcome was always extended. No questions were asked. No one said, “Phone kyon nahi kiya aane se pahle”. Sala phone hi nahi tha to phone kahan se karte. Phones were for emergency calls and life never had any urgency or emergency.

 

Letters were the means to communicate. Masi would write in Urdu and only Mom could join the alif, be, pe, jeem, chay to make sense out of the characters. How could mom read ‘Ulta’ we would think. When we could not read left to right properly but she could from right to left.

 

The Chinese were cool, when I was posted near Pangong Tso many-many moons back. The ‘line’ from the Battalion HQ would snap often due to heavy snow. Someone would read my wife’s letters over the phone as the supply vehicle which carried the ‘dak’ would be stuck on the other side of the pass. Communication was by telepathy.

 

A time and day were set well in advance, before we left home from annual leave to connect to your beloved. At a particular time, both of us would look at the moon and assume what could or would be said from the other side. No news was always good news.

 

Letter writing to your wife whom you just married and got posted to High Altitude was like a doctor prescribing you a medicine ‘overdose’. Do goli khali pet, do after breakfast, one after lunch and one or two after dinner. TDS as they used to call it. The Punjabi way of calling it was Tarke, Dupahri, Shaam. That was the ‘frequency’ of letter writing. What we wrote did not matter but we still wrote.

 

Then came an era of the STD. If you did not speak to your parents or wife every week, it meant you were annoyed. This was always said, “Tum naraz ho kya’, baat kar liya karo kabhi-kabhi”. For this statement one never had a convincing answer.

 

You could never tell them that the network was out when you reached the STD booth which was a three day walk. The next time you reached the booth, ‘wating lines’ and ‘ogling eyes’ could not be avoided. The third time you tried, you had no time to talk shop as the meter was running fastest when you spoke. There was no time to say, “Aur phir, aur kya ho raha hai, hore dasso”. The field cashier never gave so much money to blow off on a call.

 

Moment, you got a ‘free line’, you would even ring up “Chacha ki Mami ke Phoopa ke Jeth ki Sali. We could talk to wrong numbers. Reading telephone directories and point out to people whom you knew when their name figured in that list.

 

Time came for mobile phones. Communication improved. The monthly talk became a weekly talk with landlines and now it was twice a day minimum. Then the internet was introduced on the mobiles. The art of letter writing died. Telegrams and inland letters died their own death too.

 

Then came 2G, 3G then 4G. How they were used for the betterment of humans is well known. With it came video calling and net banking. Now there are no distances between people sitting at the other end of the world. You are in touch, but the personal touch has gone missing. You can see things live, you can go live and be there virtually.

 

Then came the time of frustration. When the 4G network would give 2G speed. People could go berserk. High speed internet was the need of the hour. A hand-held set was now a touch screen one and cost lakhs of rupees. However, the relations lost the bonds of closeness.

 

I saw umpteen ‘youngsters’ sitting under 4G towers when it was launched. They hooked them. make them addicts and slaves to the mobile. Any guesses, what could they be downloading? During corona, had there been no internet, what would have happened? Your guess is as good as mine.

 

Yesterday 5G was launched. What are we going to download now? The good morning messages now will never go round and round and say buffering. Videos would download in a blink. Still, we would yearn for 10G speed.

 

For me the ‘ultimate communication’ is when my wife says “Suno-G.” I better respond in two and a half seconds or else. Can you guess the consequences? I wonder!!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS