Monday, December 24, 2007

Hello?

Yeah... that's how it started. As a question. The phone rings, you answer it and you say "Hello?" because you don't know who is on the other end. But of course, that was way back then right? These days we have caller ID. So the "Hello?" has changed to "Hello!", "hello.", "Hey there girlie!", "Wassup?", "long time no hear!" etc.

Well... guess what? MG doesn't have caller ID at home. And I have never ever had it! All my friends had caller ID and cordless phone and all those stuff. I obviously wanted all that too! But things have changed over the years. Way back then, when mobile phones were very rare (and the size of walkie-talkies!), cordless phone at home made sense. But what if you misplaced it? Something like that was very likely to happen with me in the house! Can't even give it a missed call to locate it because obviously, there was no cell phone and you can't use the other phone because its just a different instrument with the same number! But these days, I don't see whats so great about cordless phones. It seems sorta pointless to me with cell phone around. In fact, I prefer to carry the entire instrument with the wire dangling and pacing as far as the length of the wire will let me! But caller ID still had a charm. I still wanted it. Until recently!

I sorta have caller ID most of the year. 8 months or more every year to be precise since I have a cell phone in Singapore with caller ID. So I know who is calling me and if I missed any call when I was busy. At home, a part of me misses that. Only recently it occured to me that my family could go out for whatever, miss a 100 calls and never know! Being the president of an orchestra, that prospect seemed unthinkable. But then again, I can't lie. Its a relief. I am so happy not to feel my cell phone in my jeans pocket. It also feels great to go out, come back and be blissfully ignorant about who called! But most importantly, I love hearing the phone ring and pick it up wondering who's calling and ask...

"Hello?"

I don't think I want caller ID anymore.

What's life without a bit of suspense :)

5 comments:

Anusha said...

Heh! I can imagine what a relief it must be for you to not have your phone ringing all the time, especially this year! :P

It is kinda nice to not know who's calling at times. I have Caller ID over here, but the phone is in such a dark corner that nothing's really visible on it, unless you lean in really close or use a flashlight. Which is inconvenient, so I don't bother ;) So yeah, it's quite nice to have to guess the identity of the person at the other end by just his/her voice. It's almost like a game! :)

Anonymous said...

the only times i feel completely 'by myself' are when my mobile's not with me...and there are few things that make me feel so free :)

oh is it ok if i blogroll you?

i assume it is, i already did :)

Macho Girl said...

#Clueless
A game that can get embarassing at times! :P

#Shweta
Welcome!!! Of course its ok to blogroll me. No problem at all :)

soleil said...

When I first saw the title of this post, I thought it had something to do with the tone with which we say "hello" when we answer the phone. I still am fascinated that I answer the phone with a "hello" like I'm asking a question while people like Cookie Monster say it like a statement.

Anonymous said...

recently one of my friends called from a landline which wasnt her regular number.. and i kind of recognised her when she said hello itself.. and we were like talking after about a year or so....

need i say that both of us were ecstatic about the very fact....

btw, pres of orchestra? hmmm.. wat orchestra? wat do you play?

ab