People disconnect call from landlines

People disconnect call from landlines

Remember the days when film would have at least one scene with the actress and actor talking on the phone or sometimes singing an entire song on the landline. There used to be scenes that would focus only on the ringing of the landline phone to depict horror, fear, suspense, or as symbol of some good or bad news. Just a comparison of those days to today's normal scenario will reveal a striking difference; as landline phone have completely moved out of picture. With the aam aadmi flaunting high-end mobile phones, it's not just the movies that have changed trend, but regular living as well. Gone are the days when people would wait in long queues to pay their MTNL bills, the reason being people no more use them. "We have put our MTNL landline to safe custody with the service provider itself since we had been to our native place for three months and there was no point paying the rental. And now, after we have come back, we still have not taken it 'off safe custody' since we do not use it at all. All the four members in our house have a mobile and we never use the landline phone, except for times when our distant relatives from Kolkata call, which is once in a blue moon. Our landline phone has a white colour knitted cover to it, which my son makes fun off. He says as it is we don't use it, the white cloth determines the fact that it's existence is 'dead'," says Pradeep Ghoshal, a resident of Koparkhairane. In fact, some people choose to replace the normal looking landline phone with a rather antique one made of wood and brass. The receiver of such antique phone is very heavy to lift, in fact the entire device is not something we could use daily, considering its weight and style. Mariam Joseph, a resident of Belapur also has a similar phone at home which was specially bought to suite their wooden interiors. "When we worked in improving the interiors of our house, we needed furniture and showpieces commensurate to it, which forced us to buy antique looking sofas, table, lamps and this antique landline phone. Two years back when we bought it, we had our MTNL number that we used with the phone. However, it being extremely heavy, moreover since it is supposed to be kept on a wooden podium specially designed for it, it is very difficult to shift it as well," says Mariam. Hence, the Joseph family have now got the line disconnected and just kept it for incoming, which is also rare. Knowing the kind of discomfort it creates since one has to talk over the phone by standing at one place, the landline is a rather hurdle for today's living. "We are all multi-taskers, and in spite of knowing the adversaries of talking on the mobiles with the neck cramped on a side, we still tend to do it. That's because, we do other things in addition to talking on the phone, which is not possible with the landline," said Rohini Kartikeyan, an architect by profession and a resident of Vashi. Kishore Kumar Bhagwat, who is a content writer, says that his job doesn't allow him to talk on landlines. "I am a freelancer and have off site clients with whom I have constantly be in touch through internet or phone. And every time, they call I have keep myself ready to take notes, comments, suggestions, pointers etc. which is impossible holding handline. In fact, I think in addition to antique, having a landline phone is just useful as an address proof for certain documentation purposes," added Bhagwat.