This is a little anecdote from my ... ahem .... "innocent" childhood days !!!!!!!!!!! Those were the days when you looked forward to being left alone in the house while your parents went out into town. I used to relish such occasions. Being 10 years old, i was never allowed to experiment with delicate appliances at home, a rule i promptly disregard on such momentous occasions.
I learnt my basic lessons in cooking during these glorious "free hours" ( like if you mix tomato juice in an omelette, the taste is an unpleasant sourness...... the taste of grape juice with seeds crushed in....and some other experiments i would rather not talk about ... :D ). Not just cooking, i took these opportunities to satisfy my curiosity which more often than not landed me in some tight spots.
Anyway, on one such occasion i was very preoccupied with helpline numbers. 100 - police. 101 - Fire Force. That was pretty much it, but to a 10 year old me, the avenues were endless!!!!!!!! It was around 8pm in the night and i wanted to know if these helpline nos were real ??? How can u call the fire force with just dialing 101 ?? I mused........ Our home phone nos was around 7 digits. So did 3 digit nos really work??? Or were the films i saw fooling me ??? The questions were endless, but the answers were a dial-of-the-phone away. I thought like whom to call ? The Police or the Fire Force ?? .......... Police are always a terrifying thought, especially to a 10 year old boy... I decided to go with Fire Force. The lesser of the two evils !!!!!!!
Well.. i picked up the receiver and before i dialled 101, took a deep breath and reminded myself to put on an adult voice. I was READY ...................... ----1-0-1---- ..... beep beep beep..... and it started ringing , i almost stopped breathing !!!!!!!! What the hell ??? So they werent lying... I was aroused from this musing by a husky powerful voice announcing "Fire Force... What can we do for you?" ... I was stunned... I regained my composure.. or whatever that remained.. My heart was going THUMP THUMP THUMP !!!!!!! I put on my adult voice.. and boldly spoke into the receiver : "There is a fire here" .... and the man asks "Give me your address" ... I could not give him my address..so (still in my adult voice ) i gave him the address of a nearby street. "How did the fire start??" Pat comes the next question and i'm caught unawares.. I stammer "TV caught fire"..He asks me "Where??" ... and i stutter "Right side of the TV" . He says OK and hangs up. I am relieved to get off the phone and so did not pause to worry about the logical nature of my answers.
I congratulate myself for having verified the existence of 101 and i sit silently hoping to hear the siren of the fire trucks arriving at a nearby street. "Trring Trring" goes my phone and disturbs my patient wait for the trucks. Thinking its my parents just checking whether i'm all right or not, i pick up the phone. Alas.... instead of my dad's voice, a deep husky voice, terrifyingly familiar greets me. I am panic stricken... my heart goes into overdrive !!!!! I stutter and stammer to his questions of a fire being reported.... I reverted to my trusted and most effective defence... Blindly deny everything..... The officer just calmly accepts my version, but goes on to inform me of the existence of a device known as "Caller ID" which i'm sure everyone knows of !!!!!! He further informs me of police action for such pranks, still accepting my high pitched denials... He hangs the phone up with an ominous warning which took all life out of ME !!!!!!!!!!
Suddenly i find myself in a terrifying house, all alone with thoughts only of a new, but vicious instrument called Caller ID that entraps inocent young boys like me. To cut the story short, I panicked big time... Called up my aunt nearby... asked her to come to me as i was too scared... she called my parents.. they were terrified... It was a FIASCO !!!!!! But more importantly, they did not find out about the incident that threw Caller ID's into my world !!!!!! That was the day i discovered Caller IDs. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I learnt my basic lessons in cooking during these glorious "free hours" ( like if you mix tomato juice in an omelette, the taste is an unpleasant sourness...... the taste of grape juice with seeds crushed in....and some other experiments i would rather not talk about ... :D ). Not just cooking, i took these opportunities to satisfy my curiosity which more often than not landed me in some tight spots.
Anyway, on one such occasion i was very preoccupied with helpline numbers. 100 - police. 101 - Fire Force. That was pretty much it, but to a 10 year old me, the avenues were endless!!!!!!!! It was around 8pm in the night and i wanted to know if these helpline nos were real ??? How can u call the fire force with just dialing 101 ?? I mused........ Our home phone nos was around 7 digits. So did 3 digit nos really work??? Or were the films i saw fooling me ??? The questions were endless, but the answers were a dial-of-the-phone away. I thought like whom to call ? The Police or the Fire Force ?? .......... Police are always a terrifying thought, especially to a 10 year old boy... I decided to go with Fire Force. The lesser of the two evils !!!!!!!
Well.. i picked up the receiver and before i dialled 101, took a deep breath and reminded myself to put on an adult voice. I was READY ...................... ----1-0-1---- ..... beep beep beep..... and it started ringing , i almost stopped breathing !!!!!!!! What the hell ??? So they werent lying... I was aroused from this musing by a husky powerful voice announcing "Fire Force... What can we do for you?" ... I was stunned... I regained my composure.. or whatever that remained.. My heart was going THUMP THUMP THUMP !!!!!!! I put on my adult voice.. and boldly spoke into the receiver : "There is a fire here" .... and the man asks "Give me your address" ... I could not give him my address..so (still in my adult voice ) i gave him the address of a nearby street. "How did the fire start??" Pat comes the next question and i'm caught unawares.. I stammer "TV caught fire"..He asks me "Where??" ... and i stutter "Right side of the TV" . He says OK and hangs up. I am relieved to get off the phone and so did not pause to worry about the logical nature of my answers.
I congratulate myself for having verified the existence of 101 and i sit silently hoping to hear the siren of the fire trucks arriving at a nearby street. "Trring Trring" goes my phone and disturbs my patient wait for the trucks. Thinking its my parents just checking whether i'm all right or not, i pick up the phone. Alas.... instead of my dad's voice, a deep husky voice, terrifyingly familiar greets me. I am panic stricken... my heart goes into overdrive !!!!! I stutter and stammer to his questions of a fire being reported.... I reverted to my trusted and most effective defence... Blindly deny everything..... The officer just calmly accepts my version, but goes on to inform me of the existence of a device known as "Caller ID" which i'm sure everyone knows of !!!!!! He further informs me of police action for such pranks, still accepting my high pitched denials... He hangs the phone up with an ominous warning which took all life out of ME !!!!!!!!!!
Suddenly i find myself in a terrifying house, all alone with thoughts only of a new, but vicious instrument called Caller ID that entraps inocent young boys like me. To cut the story short, I panicked big time... Called up my aunt nearby... asked her to come to me as i was too scared... she called my parents.. they were terrified... It was a FIASCO !!!!!! But more importantly, they did not find out about the incident that threw Caller ID's into my world !!!!!! That was the day i discovered Caller IDs. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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