PCO@home
My brother and my mom have this unique knack of convincing anyone of the true values of the most unnecessary luxuries they want to enjoy. So about four years ago, my dad (live) and I (over an ISD call) had to go through a whole marketing campaign when we bought a fancy phone with caller ID facility, speaker phone and the works. If you want to dial a number, you press a button that says 'Press' (to state the obvious is one of my family's core virtues) and a little door slowly opens to reveal the numbers. You could of course look at the number you are dialing, find the duration of the call (which is not always a good thing) and let the numbers you have dialed be stored in the history for your mom to keep tabs on who you are talking to.
And like wine, the phone's getting better with age. To foster the spirit of loving and sharing, giving and receiving that's integral to the concept of a family, the phone is now equipped with a feature of broadcasting all your calls right till the end of the kitchen. In other words, the concept of a private conversation has just been thrown out of the brown, cob-webbed window and every call is answered over a speaker!
Such a feature, as you can imagine, can lead to very interesting situations. So one day, one of my really nice uncles who does not often visit us too often landed home without his really nice wife, who for some strange reason, some really nice aunties my mother knows don't really like. So as my mom and dad are reliving past memories in his company, one of these really nice aunties call my mom. And taking the privacy the phone offers for granted, she talks about my really nice uncle's really nice wife in not the kindest of terms. My flummoxed mom, in a stroke of absolute genius and desperation, silently cuts the calls and says a couple of hellos and declares that she's lost her. But the auntie is not only really nice but also very persistent. So, she calls up again and my mom heartlessly cuts her off again. This happens twice or thrice and the auntie finally gets the message that my mom's not really interested in talking to her now. My uncle has his own share of questions. But he's intelligent enough to understand that his questions will be blunted by a obviously uncomfortable lie that will share their company for the rest of the evening. So, they pretend as if nothing happened, save my dad who finds the whole situation extremely amusing and cannot stop smiling.
It's a lot of fun too - when someone like ~C calls up and who as soon as I tell her she's on speaker, confesses that I am the father of her son and that I should come to bangalore right away to attend the parent teachers meeting in the most 70-ish-mere-paas-maa-hai tone much to the amusement of my mom, my neighbor, and the guy who's come down to repair my PC (and guess even the grocery owner a mile away), .
The good thing - according to my mom and dad - is that this way, none of them can have an extra marital affair as there's no privacy, which with both of them in/nearing their fifties is a very pressing concern indeed.
And like wine, the phone's getting better with age. To foster the spirit of loving and sharing, giving and receiving that's integral to the concept of a family, the phone is now equipped with a feature of broadcasting all your calls right till the end of the kitchen. In other words, the concept of a private conversation has just been thrown out of the brown, cob-webbed window and every call is answered over a speaker!
Such a feature, as you can imagine, can lead to very interesting situations. So one day, one of my really nice uncles who does not often visit us too often landed home without his really nice wife, who for some strange reason, some really nice aunties my mother knows don't really like. So as my mom and dad are reliving past memories in his company, one of these really nice aunties call my mom. And taking the privacy the phone offers for granted, she talks about my really nice uncle's really nice wife in not the kindest of terms. My flummoxed mom, in a stroke of absolute genius and desperation, silently cuts the calls and says a couple of hellos and declares that she's lost her. But the auntie is not only really nice but also very persistent. So, she calls up again and my mom heartlessly cuts her off again. This happens twice or thrice and the auntie finally gets the message that my mom's not really interested in talking to her now. My uncle has his own share of questions. But he's intelligent enough to understand that his questions will be blunted by a obviously uncomfortable lie that will share their company for the rest of the evening. So, they pretend as if nothing happened, save my dad who finds the whole situation extremely amusing and cannot stop smiling.
It's a lot of fun too - when someone like ~C calls up and who as soon as I tell her she's on speaker, confesses that I am the father of her son and that I should come to bangalore right away to attend the parent teachers meeting in the most 70-ish-mere-paas-maa-hai tone much to the amusement of my mom, my neighbor, and the guy who's come down to repair my PC (and guess even the grocery owner a mile away), .
The good thing - according to my mom and dad - is that this way, none of them can have an extra marital affair as there's no privacy, which with both of them in/nearing their fifties is a very pressing concern indeed.
posted by Rathish at 12:32 AM
2 Comments:
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"loving and sharing, giving and receiving"-- F.R.I.E.N.D.S !!!!!!
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