By : Ngathingkhui Jagoi/IFP
So what happens if you don’t have a mobile? Keep cool.
There was a time when I envied people who had mobile phones. When I saw some early mobile users (people who were lucky enough in getting SIMs when mobile was first launched in Nagaland) waving at the autos with their trendy mobiles to get a ride, I even thought of buying a toy mobile handset and pretend to be talking to someone in the middle of the road.
Before long, I also acquired one by hook and by crook. What do you get when you cross a bad-telephone connection with a rooster? A wake up call! But what happens when you have a mobile for yourselves? A raging temper perhaps.
The other day, I frantically tried on my mobile phone to call up a friend of mine for some urgent matter. But I could not convey the message. The network was always busy or it was not reachable. I tried fidgeting my poor handset and the message I want to convey got stale after four days (because network was down for four consecutive days).
Four days? What a cruel joke! But things happened here in Nagaland or for that matter in Manipur too for mobile users.
Anybody who has tried for an urgent call would know exactly what I mean. As for those who still haven’t experienced these advancements in technology, here is what they say.
Wow!!! Everything is automated. But all you’ll hear is a shoddy woman’s voice in slur, “Aoll lianes in this ruoad are busy, please call after sometime.” To me this is the most irritating voice I have ever heard. I am in a way, already in a fury for having failed to get through my friend and hearing such an unpleasant voice is Umnh! Too much. I sometimes wonder why BSNL has installed such voice. Nagas are a people who can sing with sweet voices and we have sweet female voices. Why on earth such a voice? I repeat, I really can’t comprehend why such a shoddy voice with such an unpleasant sound transmitting at 78 mph! The service has been revamped and now has a slick new automated voice response system for the more English savvy people.
BSNL tells lies
In a bit to get more information about how mobile phones operate here, I narrated my woes to a friend of mine. However, he could not give me much inside to the problem. He only said he had tried dialing his landline number just a few inches away from landline telephone receiver. “Damn it,” pat came his reply, “It was only a few inches away, but came the automated message, ‘network busy’ I dialed my landline again and it said, ‘the subscriber is not reachable.’ The distance between my mobile set and the landline receiver was just a question of a few inches and it was not reachable! BSNL tells lies.”
Either the number is perpetually busy or tower has sunk inside the loose ground of Dimapur again, only the BSNL knows. Though things seem to have improved a bit now, try only if you luck-out atleast 8 times out of 10 or have nothing better to do!
The bad part: Call. No answer? Call again. Still no answer? Call yet again and again... Repeat the above routine till lady luck smiles or you get a BSNL mobiles customer care or you loose your handset and threw it away.
The big news: There is a rumour doing round that the tower is being overloaded (may be that is why sometimes the tower sank into the ground). The rumour goes on saying that BSNL issues SIMs even if it has already exceeded the load. I was informed that a guy who was sent by certain politician collected 100 SIM cards from Dimapur BSNL office recently. Nagaland is a state where 5 governments (4 underground govts and + state govt) ruled. Imagine! How many SIMs the BIG BOSS of these governments must be taking. And you fight like dogs for the leftovers.
Now that there is an overload connection, all we can do is wait and share the lines phase wise.
(The writer is senior sub-editor Eastern Mirror, Dimapur)
The Imphal Free Press
So what happens if you don’t have a mobile? Keep cool.
There was a time when I envied people who had mobile phones. When I saw some early mobile users (people who were lucky enough in getting SIMs when mobile was first launched in Nagaland) waving at the autos with their trendy mobiles to get a ride, I even thought of buying a toy mobile handset and pretend to be talking to someone in the middle of the road.
Before long, I also acquired one by hook and by crook. What do you get when you cross a bad-telephone connection with a rooster? A wake up call! But what happens when you have a mobile for yourselves? A raging temper perhaps.
The other day, I frantically tried on my mobile phone to call up a friend of mine for some urgent matter. But I could not convey the message. The network was always busy or it was not reachable. I tried fidgeting my poor handset and the message I want to convey got stale after four days (because network was down for four consecutive days).
Four days? What a cruel joke! But things happened here in Nagaland or for that matter in Manipur too for mobile users.
Anybody who has tried for an urgent call would know exactly what I mean. As for those who still haven’t experienced these advancements in technology, here is what they say.
Wow!!! Everything is automated. But all you’ll hear is a shoddy woman’s voice in slur, “Aoll lianes in this ruoad are busy, please call after sometime.” To me this is the most irritating voice I have ever heard. I am in a way, already in a fury for having failed to get through my friend and hearing such an unpleasant voice is Umnh! Too much. I sometimes wonder why BSNL has installed such voice. Nagas are a people who can sing with sweet voices and we have sweet female voices. Why on earth such a voice? I repeat, I really can’t comprehend why such a shoddy voice with such an unpleasant sound transmitting at 78 mph! The service has been revamped and now has a slick new automated voice response system for the more English savvy people.
BSNL tells lies
In a bit to get more information about how mobile phones operate here, I narrated my woes to a friend of mine. However, he could not give me much inside to the problem. He only said he had tried dialing his landline number just a few inches away from landline telephone receiver. “Damn it,” pat came his reply, “It was only a few inches away, but came the automated message, ‘network busy’ I dialed my landline again and it said, ‘the subscriber is not reachable.’ The distance between my mobile set and the landline receiver was just a question of a few inches and it was not reachable! BSNL tells lies.”
Either the number is perpetually busy or tower has sunk inside the loose ground of Dimapur again, only the BSNL knows. Though things seem to have improved a bit now, try only if you luck-out atleast 8 times out of 10 or have nothing better to do!
The bad part: Call. No answer? Call again. Still no answer? Call yet again and again... Repeat the above routine till lady luck smiles or you get a BSNL mobiles customer care or you loose your handset and threw it away.
The big news: There is a rumour doing round that the tower is being overloaded (may be that is why sometimes the tower sank into the ground). The rumour goes on saying that BSNL issues SIMs even if it has already exceeded the load. I was informed that a guy who was sent by certain politician collected 100 SIM cards from Dimapur BSNL office recently. Nagaland is a state where 5 governments (4 underground govts and + state govt) ruled. Imagine! How many SIMs the BIG BOSS of these governments must be taking. And you fight like dogs for the leftovers.
Now that there is an overload connection, all we can do is wait and share the lines phase wise.
(The writer is senior sub-editor Eastern Mirror, Dimapur)
The Imphal Free Press
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