7973

7973 is no more. The Exchange has taken place. And now the Wals at D3 and elsewhere will have to crunch a new set of nos. A suspect unpalatable proposition of sweeping away four healthy decades of one number one memory but what can be done? A regular companion of the family since the last 47 years whether it was to keep in touch with Papa posted on field duty as an Army officer or the large Wal family spread across Ajmer, Calcutta, Delhi and Bareilly, it was a name that came to be born by itself rather than being what's the phone no? In fact, more than techy piece that it was , a somber black specimen shaking you from a midnight slumber if there were a trunk call ( as most trunk calls came at night only), 7973 was a source of communication for most at Lawrence Terrace. After all, the Wals were one of the earliest birds in the colony to get a phone. This facilitated the neighbors too. Contacting kin was just a house away! And like the family, for them too it was a name, 7973 rather than 27973. As all things Indian, quite frequently when the contraption went phut and a complaint was made to the Exchange fron Nomita Aunty's phone, the lineman attending the fault would say 'Hah, ji 7973 hain ji theek hai, kharab hai? Theek ho jayega. Aap ka umber to hamein yaad hai' only as a youngster learning the ways of the world while learning to keep irritation caused by the lineman's tone at bay I would say 'usme 2 aur jod li jiyega'. Within the family it was if something needed to be looked around if kept near the phone table, 'see under 7973, surely it would be there' . Looking for a torch to cut down the ever so frequent power outages, Amma would say, "7973 ke paas choti torch rakhi hai'. And when after three decades of undisturbed peace and equanimity, when the volume of connections increased and numbers needed to be reshuffled and increased, it was ooh and aah a fresh number to be crunched. But as steadiness would have it, it was first 227973 and then 2627973... to everyone's relief 7973 stuck. Even newer additions to the family like Vineet and Pradeep's wives only mentally crunched 7973. And when Sadhna got an office connection, 7973 reigned supreme in the home phone race. No matter how much and many times family, friends, acquaintances were told the numbers, 7973 was first. Family wrote the new number and just spilled out 7973, acquaintances accepted both. But, alas like all good things come to an end 7973's life span also ended on Saturday. No more will there be a number that witnessed a family's fortune turn cartwheels at such close range or remained a mute family friend thru thick and thin. Posted by Bhavna Wal at Agra