Trunk calls, letters: Big B recalls tough times of communication
Mumbai, June 4 (IANS) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan took a trip down the memory lane recalling times when communication was difficult due to unavailability of the internet and smartphones. The actor recalled one such moment when he was 10 years old and his mother Teji Bachchan fell ill after which it became difficult for him to contact a doctor nearby.
The 73-year-old said he did a video-chat with his wife Jaya Bachchan and their grandchildren on FaceTime as they were out of town.
“Facetime calls are the finest substitute for absence in person… And so many were done today… With Jaya, who is not in town and with the grandchildren that are with her… Such joy to be conversing and feeling their presence though not present,” Amitabh posted on his blog on Friday night.
The “Piku” star then got nostalgic over times when communicating with others was difficult.
“And time takes you back to those days when we now wonder how did we ever communicate… The booking of phone calls. Okay that came after. First came the presence of a telephone in the house. That black instrument with the delightful holes against numbers which revolved around your finger and the sound of connect from the other end.
“Those overseas calls that took ages and days for them to materialise, and the operator listening in and reminding you that the time is up… The distance call or long distance calls or the overseas calls, or more commonly that were called ‘trunk calls’,” he added.
Amitabh then went on to share the moment when in the absence of his father and late poet Harivanshrai Bachchan, he had to call doctor to look after his ill mother.
“Emergencies… Mother falling very ill in Allahabad, father away in England on study, and me the only elder in the home at 10 years of age.
“No telephone to connect a doctor or hospital and so a letter written to the nearest doctor to come urgently to treat my mother. Sending off the letter on cycle with the help in the house, late at night. Such were the times,” he wrote.