There are so many things in life which we would do for the first time. Depending on that "first experience" we might want to do it over and again or bury it deep down and keep it to ourselves or simply erase it from our memory. I will be adding a few such firsts in the days to follow which are unforgettable for me.This happened in the mid 1980s when I was in my 9th standard. At that time, to me a telephone was a wonderful invetion by Mr. Graham Bell... an instrument used to speak to people who are far away from us. Till then, I had only seen them in movies and an occassional "partial glimpse" of it, at telephone booths... but had never ever laid hands on it. One day, my dad's good buddy from his bachelor days had visited us. He was working in "Gulf" and had visited India after a really long time and had decided to catch up with my dad. It was a saturday afternoon I guess... because I was at home after school and my dad was in office. My mom asked me to inform dad about the visitors (he had come with his family). I had 2 options - 1) Walk down to my dad's office (about 1.5km from home) or 2) Take my bicycle and reach his office.
Walking was out of question because this uncle had to catch up with many more of his other buddies too and was in a hurry. Bicycle too was out of question.... my mom was too scared to let me ride on the main road ... So the third option popped up ... go to the nearest booth and inform my dad....
Here I was... all excited about making my first telephone call ever ... I had a mixed feeling of anxiety, excitement and God knows why.... nerverous too... I scribbled dad's number on a piece of paper and ran to the nearest telephone booth that was manned by a Physically challenged. Those days even local telephone booths were scarce and so I had to "run" to the main road. The gentleman inside the booth dialled the number for me and handed over the receiver to me. I could feel my hands trembling... I could feel a big lump forming inside my throat, and I could feel my mouth go dry as I heard the "trrring trring" for the first time in my life. I knew I had to ask for an "extension" after someone picks up. A rough voice said "Hello" .... I was excited and my voice choked and I barely mumbled "2277 please" then I heard another "trring" and immediately a familiar voice said "Hello Narayanan here". I was too nervous / excited and started blabbering into teh phone. My dad seemed to be busy and he said... "hold on" while I was "chanting"... But I would not listen and blurted out what I wanted to say in a single breath and I could feel myself panting.... and I felt a sense of relief.... When I heard my dad shout at me... "Once again". I rattled out the words again and again he said "Once again". I thought he was not able to hear me and started shouting staright "into the mouth piece". My dad responded "Once again" and I could feel that he was getting angry ... I made one last attempt and shouted at the top of my voice... wondering.. at this decibel.... he could hear me even without the phone. Finally my dad said..."Ok I am leaving in 5 mins" but I could sense that he was angry with me for talking to him probably in a "very low voice". I reached home and almost immediately my dad reached too. As soon as he entered the house... the first thing I heard was - "Can't you understand a simple thing? I was busy and I asked you to wait and you kept repeating your words"... My head started spinning... "My dad asked me to wait??? Was I so excited that I missed those words???"... No.. I was sure I heard him say "ONCE AGAIN"... and I mumbled.... "But you asked me say it once again and everytime i repeated, you asked me to repeat again"... I guess this time my dad's head went spinning... ONCE AGAIN????.... I said "ONE SECOND" he retorted... I almost fainted and was also smiling within thinking about how he would have felt when he kept saying "ONE SECOND.. ONE SECOND" and I kept repeating my recorded mantra "ONCE AGAIN"... After this incident, it took me another 6 years to get anywhere close to a telephone let alone speaking to someone over it.....
Read the other funny incident with my communication.
