Answering the telephone has become 3uUe a pain lately. Most callers think that re person at the other end has all the time in the, world to take messages, chat or give out information even if he/sne has no clue as to who the caller is. At times these calls reach such irritating proportions that one almost wishes one could go back to a time where Graham Bell had not been born.

At the office. Just when one has sat to do sonje work that requires exclusive concentration, the phone will ring and ask for someone who is not there. If you are female, the caller will immediately assume you are someone’s personal secretary and will enquire when he will be back, how long ago did he go out. whether he may come after half an hour, an hour or perhaps just before magrtb. The messages to be taken will also be quite elaborate; if so and so comes between 3 and 4 pm tell him to call at this number, otherwise tell him to call at that number and if he does not come at all today, tell him that the caller will be in the next day at 5 pm. Gritting one's teeth (at this point one gets quite murderous) one may poiifely write down all this, cursing the peon for having the phone on one's desk.

At hoihe it is perhaps even worse. A large number of callers have the rude habit of asking "Who is this?” without el*nti8i whp they are br even who they wishto speak r tA.MfeiW~1Mhe -wantwH

not At’haihe. the receiver will be subject to the same kind of mental anguish. Inis is especially true when the caller is very remotely acquainted to whoever he/she Is calling/ Air sorts of questions will be hurled at you by this virtual stranger who claims to be-so and so's cousin’s stepmother s bjother-in law; "Are you his 'raises'? No? Oh soiorry. art you his mother? No? Then who ace you? Oh, Apa, if you don't mind, is he In the army? No? Then why does he live in cantonment? What kind of business does he k.do?" None of your business will be the untold

response of the receiver of the call. Of course very few of us are too polite to say that. Hence we must endure this kind pf interrogation.

Then there is the talkative caller. This particular brand of caller can prove to be quite dangerous. Your rice may be burning or your child may be falling off the crib, yet there is no way that you can disentangle Sourself from the phone because the caller as just begun to talk about the complexities of her gout problem. After answering all the usual enquiries, one may think that Anally one is off the hook (literally speaking) only to And that the caller has just warmed up. He or she will go on to explain the complicated relationship you have with him or her — "Your shoshur (father-in-law) used to call me mama which makes you my natni. but do call me bhat because your husband is also a distant cousin. Oh. by the way. your fathers aunt is also related to me... Meanwhile your house may be on Are.

There are several strategies one may adopt to avoid falling prey to such callers: Exclaiming that your child is threatening to demolish all the dtshes on the table and saying "Can you call after five minutes?" and hanging up Immediately. Is one. Pretending that the line Is really bad and you can t hear a ' wprd he/she Is saying, yelling "Hello" several Times befwa the caller curses under his/her bfWifh r>rtd hangs up. You can always put the phone off Xh?'nook after this or let it ring Incessantly before the Anal surrender.

Of course these are rather extreme measures that only the over-polite Dhakalte must resort to. If one can be a little less sensitive, such calls can easily be cut short. As one will And that often when one calls someone and he Is not there, the receiver will Just say "no" and hang up on one's face. This kind of monosyllable answer seems to be the only way to save oneself from the Inquisitive, talkative, remotely acquainted