Rocking in the Free World

When we moved into our present house in an obscure area in the outskirts of Mysore, a little under four years ago, this area was as backward as could be. Being the proud owner of a Hutch pre-paid connection (back then), I was aghast at the fact that I had absolutely no network within our house, and any sort of conversation had to be done by running upstairs and sitting, with the head and body angled in a specific direction for optimal reception.

This was a task that was specially vital for important calls from a specific member of the opposite sex, and I spared no expense (literally and figuratively) in trying to be able to speak to the said person. Eventually, I was able to look at the bright side of not having network at home, and did have a gala time slacking off work that I would’ve otherwise been delegated to, over the phone, specially in my final year of engineering.

Calls from the office would also go unanswered because there was no network, and I couldn’t be blamed because the honourable service providers hadn’t deemed the locality that I had lived in as being important enough to ensure coverage.

Cut to the not-too-distant past, when my family members switched to Airtel from Hutch, for the simple reason that Airtel put a tower in a plot that was less than fifty metres from our place. Now I could call home whenever needed, and not be too bothered about lousy coverage.

However, being a Hutch man through and through, everytime I came home, I’d still have to make what has now come to be known as the terrace run whenever I received a call. That has changed today, with a Hutch tower having been erected right next to the Airtel tower, and I have full coverage all over the place.

Walking in the evening in this place, absolutely devoid of traffic save for the odd two-wheeler returning home, I am always struck by how calm, silent and peaceful this place is, but all that was placed into the background as I spotted the two towers standing side-by-side, like two ugly shards of glass piercing the delicate balance in our locality, with their now-unwelcome presence.

As if one tower wasn’t bad enough. Now, I dread the prospect of more techies or anyone else in general moving into this place, as they discover that it is reaching a stage that can be considered as reasonably developed, vis-a-vis how it was before.

What I have described can be extrapolated to what is happening on a different scale altogether to my city, with the place going the Bangalore way, in a very alarming and unsettling manner.

I never imagined I’d be among those that would complain when I received full network coverage for my cellphone at my house, specially in the john where I could be taking a dump and talking at the same time. A little too ironic for my liking, I confess. I’m more of a small town boy than I’d ever imagined.