I am a proud subscriber of Vodafone from today and it feels good. Well, not because I have any thing with a brand global or anything on that line. For those interested in hard facts err.. statistics: it’s the second largest telecom provider after China Mobile; I get this piece of information from my well informed brother who is in the helm of affairs in telecom sector.
I am not talking about any of that but an incident as I am reminded of one such from a time that has been so long ago…
It takes me to the year 1978 and to a city called as ‘city of Joy’. I and my entire nuclear family (sans my darling brother as he was still in my mother’s tummy or may be even not there….shhh..) landed in the city after our much talked about North Eastern sojourn.
It was one evening when all family members gathered to meet the new family. My parents left Calcutta as a couple and came back with a new addition… (That’s me!) And I was introduced to all the family members; actually, the other way around. For me that meeting was where those words got faces which I had only learnt to pronounce from those picture books one reads after your honeymoon with alphabets.
And as usual I was the show stopper or the garrulous most and no one complained (that’s how I would like to believe!). My memory seldom fails and I still remember how I caught attention of my maternal grandfather who by all standards the most suave gentleman I have ever seen in my life. I went near him, stood very close to him almost grabbing his knee (well, I was only that tall then to reach that far!) and said: ‘we got our phone connection today’ and then looked up to him to check whether he took notice of what I just uttered. He promptly grabbed me and made me sit on his lap and fondly asked me: ‘what is a phone’? And I very intelligently (as usual…can’t stop patting my back ..ha ha ha!) retorted back: ‘P-H-O-N-E- phone’. And he smiled. And then I looked at him again and said: ‘why, you thought I would say F-O-N-E?’ And next I heard a huge roar of laughter in the room.
It takes me to the year 1978 and to a city called as ‘city of Joy’. I and my entire nuclear family (sans my darling brother as he was still in my mother’s tummy or may be even not there….shhh..) landed in the city after our much talked about North Eastern sojourn.
It was one evening when all family members gathered to meet the new family. My parents left Calcutta as a couple and came back with a new addition… (That’s me!) And I was introduced to all the family members; actually, the other way around. For me that meeting was where those words got faces which I had only learnt to pronounce from those picture books one reads after your honeymoon with alphabets.
And as usual I was the show stopper or the garrulous most and no one complained (that’s how I would like to believe!). My memory seldom fails and I still remember how I caught attention of my maternal grandfather who by all standards the most suave gentleman I have ever seen in my life. I went near him, stood very close to him almost grabbing his knee (well, I was only that tall then to reach that far!) and said: ‘we got our phone connection today’ and then looked up to him to check whether he took notice of what I just uttered. He promptly grabbed me and made me sit on his lap and fondly asked me: ‘what is a phone’? And I very intelligently (as usual…can’t stop patting my back ..ha ha ha!) retorted back: ‘P-H-O-N-E- phone’. And he smiled. And then I looked at him again and said: ‘why, you thought I would say F-O-N-E?’ And next I heard a huge roar of laughter in the room.
And as usual I made people laugh….well, that’s a different story.
Well, my FONE connection continues as my service provider still spells it that way. V-O-D-A-F-O-N-E- Vodafone.
Well, my FONE connection continues as my service provider still spells it that way. V-O-D-A-F-O-N-E- Vodafone.
And now you know I have new connection err Vodafone!
No comments:
Post a Comment