Picture this: I have a long phone list in front of me, and I'm checking the names on it.. sometimes I don't remember who the person is, and I kick yourself for not writing atleast some reference to the person next to the name! Like 'Amit, Golf' or 'Irfan, Computer guy'.. well anyways I realise I actually call just 10% of the people on the list on a regular basis.. so I purposely look for someone I haven't spoken to in a long long time... from school or my old neighbour or collegemate... but I don't think the number will work.. after all it's been years since I spoke to them and in day and age of jet-setters and pre-paid SIM cards, I don't expect anyone to be in the same place with the same phone number for very long... but, I dial anyways.. and it turns out to be the correct number!!!
Suddenly I am hit with such a sense of 'continuation'! The world has changed, people have changed, situations, lifestyles and jobs have changed, but the phone number is still the same.. its symbolic to the many things we all regard and would like to keep constant in our lives.. like a permanent address, the same phone number (landline), old friends, domestic help even (isn't it nice when you attend someone's wedding and they have a really old maid and the bride is introduced to her as if she is part of the family?!)! While talking to my friend, I can picturise her house, her garden, her g'mom, her pet dog etc etc.. all because she is still using the same number she used to ages ago... it means that she is still where she was, still where we were.. it hits you with a sense of nostalgia, yet with a positive feeling.. I've not been back home for 3 yrs now, but in one sense I was never at home for long as I had gone to boarding school at an early age.. and then I did college at home so that I could stay with my family for some time.. but thereafter MBA and job etc.. things have changed quite a lot, esp my friends.. we have all moved on with our lives, lost touch, gotten married, changed jobs etc.. yet still when I speak to someone from 'back then', I get a sense of permanency... that atleast something is constant..
Although I know personally I would have died with the stagnancy which comes with 'no change', I still find a sense of relief when getting in touch with someone who is still rooted, still there...
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16 comments:
yeah true ....it does give you a sense of permanence in life but at the same time , also makes you thank your starts that you got the chance to explore the world while for some that same city , same roads , same markets ..continue to be their world !!
Btw, just to ensure that familiarity n constancy , i try to maintain the last 2 digits of my phone no. , every time i get a new one :-))
bingo...how absolute...imagine getting the person using the same mobile after 5 years or so...freaking..but great :) happened to me recently, so completely relate to whatever u have written :)
it's strange but just the no bit is wierd......like these friends who u used to call all the time at one pt of time and then just lost touch....and one day u'd call them again and even the tone of the 98114.... just the tone of every digit u dial brings back all he conversations u've had with the person, it literally connects u!
`shipli
yup i know, that it does make you realise how stagnant things could get, but still it gives u some sense of familiarity... stays within ur comfort zone..
`dewaker
yup thats exactly what i am talking about! having the same cell number for so many yrs is even more freaky and surprising becoz a cellphone implies mobility, freedom, change.. when i came back from paris after 1.5 yrs, i was so happy that i could get the same cellphone number back, coz it made me feel like i belonged back here :-))
`Z
ya, the ring sounds transport you back to the last time u called the person, what did they say, where were u then, even sometimes what u were wearing (applies more to girls i think!) etc etc.. !
Something that am torn between.
Between wanting change and hating change.
Damn.
I must be the most ambivalent human-being in the universe. It sucks to be ambivalent. Even if on a single subject. Sigh.
But yes. When someone remains the someone you knew, even after a long time, it does trigger some heart chords and pull you away into the distant horizon. A little thrill.
ya so true! Though i'd die with stagnancy its nice to go back somewhere where something is still the same. like as you said a friend and her maid and her dog...or
it's like going back to rv and seeing the same old tripod(if you don't know him yet, find out !) limping away ..:) or kids ( did i say kids? god i feel old) fighting over oily papads!
I lost my phone and with it some 400 numbers :'(
A few years ago I was in Bangelore for a 2 day meeting. I had the phone number of a friend she had given me 16 years ago when she had moved to Bangelore from Bombay. I had not spoekn to her in all those years and I was convinced that I would never get her with that number. I was hoping to speak to her mom to find out where she was and catch up. I called and guess what! She answered and I found myself in a car going to her place. It was so wonderful to catch up after all those years. This brought back memories of that meeting.
Hi..
Thanx for leaving ur footprints in my blog & appreciations.
U know, all those copycats are there coz we d people!! If we would give tham a damm, they'll rarely get that guts to do.
Recently I meet with a music Director. He says,"look roy if I copy music & maybe I got sued for that, still it's ok coz in d meantime d recognation & money I'll get, it's huge!!"
Today everything's becoming INSTANT. Everybody needs INSTANT success, money, recognation.Value's dying..
But my phone list very short coz if I call someone 5 times & in reply they never call me once, I simply DELETE them..
Roy
Nice post ruchika.Yeh it gives lot of happiness when u find something unchanged and stable in such fast and flexi world.
I adore my home town and streets are unchanged where i have spent my childhood and schoold days...
and mobile number..I have 5yrs mobile and number and i still continue with it and like u said sometimes i recieve calls from my olddays buddys with whom i have lost contact...
"Zindagi ke safar mein gujar jate hai jo mukaam ,woh phir nahi aate"
Nice blog buddy....
Do vsist my space
And by the way, speaking of the ever-changing life, since you read my blog, you probably know mine probably changes more than most people:-) The worst thing about that is, I have to know the timezone difference between all the people in my life all the time so I dont wake them up at 3 AM very often:-)
:) lovely post.. i too had lost contact with a few school frens and i felt the same nostalgia when met up with them on orkut.. one of them is now an editor with HT,delhi..its good to know they ve reached places :)
And yeah life need not be all that changing.. a little stability, some permanence is always appreciated
an address as permanent as your 'blog' address :-)
hey..just blogrolled ya..
I thought I had done that before..but ..anyways better late them never:)
`individualist
probably a lot of us are ambivalent and either dont realise it, or do but cant help ourselves!!
`y?
oh yeah! and the banyan tree, which has been there for ages now, and still looks the same.. as if we know every branch that came out of it!
`commander coriander
that sucks! so sad..
`life as it happens..
yeah, i thought u might read my blog after our latest conversation... just..
`brazen head
16 yrs!!! thats a bloody long time to BE on the same phone! that reminds me of something else though.. that now i am old enough to have known people for 16 yrs.. like my old school frds.. i knw them from THAT many yrs! it makes u feel old yet there is such a charm to knowing someone for that long! and yes, timezones.. hehehe.. i rem i used to call up my dad from paris at just the exact moment when he was about to sleep, forgetting that its late nite in india and not evening! hehehe..
`roy
instant karma.. yes, a thought to ponder on...
`vikas
thanks.. yeah its nice to keep the same number for long as well.. unexpected ppl call up by chance and that makes u so happy! will def visit ur blog too..
`kishley
orkut should use nokia's slogan "Connecting people" :-)) such a small world on orkut!
`manish
wow, thats an unusual compliment! :-))
`aparna
nice that u visited my space again.. however, at the risk of sounding very daft, i'd like to know what is blogrolling?! thanks all the same, but if someone could explain, it would be of help! :-))
imagine calling a no. after some 10 years and you actually get a response... it would probably fill your head with memories...and the first hello...asking for someone you once knew... the freak chance of that person still being there...
would be nice and and might just give you that tingling feeling...
just for the record... my landline no. has been the same since i think 1990...just a 2 got added, thanks to the telephone dept..
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