10PM Wipro Signal

10 PM 14^th Feb 2010

“Pehli pehli baar mohabbat ki hai

Kuch na samajh main aaye main kya karoon”

The number from the movie Sirf Tum goes somewhat like this. The bus is moving smoothly by the Eastern Bypass. These days bus journey in Calcutta has become very comfortable, thanks to JNNURM, Green Activitist Subhas Datta, and the Calcutta High Court. These buses are more comfortable than BEST or KSTC buses that run in Mumbai and Bangalore. These newly introduced fleets are low floored, 50 seaters with larger windows, more leg space and wider corridors. O yes Mumbai will defeat Calcutta in only one category: BEST buses have two LCD TVs in them which we don’t see in Calcutta.

Well, Sirf Tum was made in 1999 when internet was just becoming popular and STD rates were quiet high. BSNL Raj was on as only landlines were main mode of communication. STD calls were very costly though there was some relaxation in STD rates after 10PM.O yes, mobiles were there but very few people could afford. Also, incoming calls were chargeable. There was a time when making a STD was a nightmare when we need to call up the telephone office and book a trunk call. Later things were much easier when Sam Pitroda brought in a revolution in communication industry in India. On his advice in 1980s Rajiv Gandhi government introduced PCOs.

Well Sirf Tum storyline is more or less Meg Ryan’s ‘You Have Got The Mail’ type. Sanjay Kapoor finds a bag belonging to a lady. Being a do-gooder he mails the bag and the contents to that lady and they start to correspond with each other. Ultimately they fall for each other even before seeing them. There is a lot of khichdi in the movie but this is the main line.

Those who are aware of the word pen-friend they will get along with the movie, the liking and disliking comes later.

But take the story to a college goer of 2010 AD, they will say, “What love by correspondence? What an idea? That too by ordinary post? And then I need to scribble all those words in a paper. SMS, Skype, Gtalk, Facebook saare maar gya kya??”

This is the problem. People are ready to do MBA by correspondence then why not love?

Maybe life has become very fast. By the time the guy’s love letter reaches the girl, she has decided that “he does not love me anymore” hence she has started looking another guy as substitute.

Actually change of partner is more frequent than change of undergarments.

Now, about writing. Today we all can type; the problem arises when we need to write something. If asked to write a full page on a piece of paper is like asking for a kidney!! If it is a dictation then it seems like a death sentence. Short hand writing has already joined the dinosaurs so does stenographers. In a museum the type-writers now can be classified in the same category which includes the steam engine.

But still today we need to sign. There the usage of pen-pencil comes into play. God knows signing may becoming extinct one day. We have already seen the Idea ad “save paper save trees. What an Idea Sirjii”

I fear that a day will come when we will teach our children “Q-W-E-R-T-Y-U-I-P-A-S.....” instead of typical “A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H....”

Come on I am speaking of the computer keyboard. Obviously to increase our writing speed we need to remember them. If things go by this line then one day in Universities people studying History will have a new chapter added called “Handwriting” like today we study hieroglyphics which were used by ancient Egyptians in their pyramids. The Government Art College will also organize Handwriting Exhibitions just as we have painting exhibitions.

Then is the issue of ordinary post. In our days we had post cards, inland letters. Post cards are rarely seen these days so are the purple coloured inland letters. These inland letters were designed in such a way that after folding and sealing, the contents of the letter can’t be read from outside. The post cards and inland letters used to take at least a week to reach their destination. For few centuries they formed the integral part of India’s communication system. “Department of Post and Telegraph” was the most revered department of the central government after the railways. Telegram or telegram may be considered to be the predecessor of SMS. Sending them was also a tedious process. They used to travel faster as they were wire dedicated.

Postmans are still around. But their khaki uniforms are gone. There was a time these people were needed to read the letters for the recipients.

Suppose in todays time, I receive a SMS and I needed someone to receive it for me!!

Ok ok SMS may be too much what about a reader for an email?

The scenes from “Sandese aati hain” from the movie Border has become something which can be termed “gone are those days.”

When asked about these a Major who spent most of on field postings in Kashmir valley said,”Such things were seen mid 90s. After that they were there but telecom made a lot of progress. Even in Kargil war we had Iridium. After 2003 everything was gone. These days we have BSNL towers in Srinagar-Leh highway.”

Philatelists, refers to someone who collects postage stamps. Some people took it as a profession also. These days such people are never heard of. How many letters do we receive that are stamped? The courier companies never do so. Even Speed Post items seldom have them. All we have are generated Track IDs and a invoices.

Once, somebody said maintaining long distant relationship is becoming tougher these days.

But how? The reason I got was life is becoming fast!!

My God! So what, the world has become smaller. You have mobiles, chat engines. You can do everything possible on earth, but virtually. To do that you just need to switch on to video chat.

Just think of Kalidasa he had no mobiles, no internet access leave alone inland letters or telegrams, yet managed to keep his love for his lady alive. The result was reflected beautifully in his Meghdootam.

Those who have read it, knows what a masterpiece it is. I am a part of that group and I know today’s Valentine’s Day one-liners are no match to it.

Has anyone have heard about picture postcards?

No? Well that is not a crime. Today we all forward MMSs. Picture postcards were postcards with pictures on the side where we generally write the text. They may be of any occasion specific or location specific. I still remember to have received one from my aunt when she moved to Europe after her marriage in 1987. It had a nice picture of the snow-covered Alps.

One thing must be noted here unlike MMS picture postcards never had explicit pictures or nude images. I don’t know the reason but it may be because before reaching the recipient the card will fall into several hands. Just imagine a still from the raunchy MMS on a picture postcard and a postman arrives at your doorstep to deliver it.

Sending a picture is no tough job today. Maybe in the movie Dev D, Mahie Gill made it too complicated while sending her ‘bina kapdoon wali “image to Abhay Deol.

These days’ images are more processed than they taken. People think to be a good photographer a high definition camera is a must. O yes, Adobe Photoshop is also a must. If anyone adds a nice picture in his or her album in orkut instead praising the person there are people who asks “is it a SLR?” or “what is the EXIF info?” They think that they are expert in photography and so such photos cannot be taken without SLR or won’t be so beautiful without post processing. And then we have the EXIF info.

Problem with such people is that” yeh log sab kuchh jan janke janwar ban chukka hai.”

“EXIF info”, it seems just as a PC, a laptop or any damn electronics goods comes with a specification a photo should also come with that specification called EXIF info.

There are too many idiots (real idiots not from Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots) who instead of looking at the subject or matter of the picture raises their voice “what is the Ev?”” it would have been better if you had decreased the ISO.”

Just imagine, today’s “Times Of India” comes with a picture of a person, below which it is written:

“Manmohan Singh in the Parliament f-stop f/28, ISO Speed ISO-80, model Nikon:XXX"

How will you feel?

I happen to know a Reuters photographer who still uses Fuji Film reels at occasions just for practice. Now if we ask these janwars to do so we will get an answer:

“yeh sab cheez Lord Curzon ke pardada use karte the, I am in the twenty-first century”

The person from Reuters said “How a photo is taken does not make a photographer but rather you should try making your picture speak, the photo will make you a photographer. Today anyone takes a rough snap goes home to process it. Nobody has the courage to put up the actual thing they have taken. That is why we seldom have any Kevin Carters these days.”

It’s like buying a scalpel from the stationary and going into a OT to perform surgery, degree does not matter. I have a scalpel hence I am a surgeon therefore I am the Devata to Devi Shetty because Devi Shetty took more than a decade to be what he is and I just bought a scalpel became a surgeon..

Actually the problem is not with the progress of technology, it is with us rather how we accept the change. It’s nice to “Ring out the old” and “bring in the new” but we should be careful.

There are occasions when toddler studying in class VIII (I am using the term toddler intentionally) proudly says “I can’t read or write Bengali.” or any of the languages spoken as mother tongue.

Their parents will shyly come with an explanation, “Studying Marathi is not compulsory in school.”

Agreed.

But in Class VIII your kid has already picked up all available Bengali abusive adjectives from all available resources along with their meanings and applications. Does any parent have any explanation for this? Learning abuse is not compulsory in school; it does form a part of the curriculum even. Are you sending him to special “Bengali Abuse Coaching Class” just as you send him to “Cricket Coaching “or “Drawing Class”?

We are picking up everything new and we should. But we should be careful in not picking up the inferior Chinese merchandise that are easily available everywhere.

Taking the newly built flyover to avoid a congested crossing every time is always welcome but we should know flyovers never have signals, which does not mean that one should be ignorant about how a traffic signal functions.

The bus has taken the usual U-turn; the next stoppage is Wipro Flyover. I need to get down at the signal.