Wrong number

Sorry folks to have been not very active on the blog recently.

There were so many things happening around me that I was totally caught up in them and my writing had to take a backseat. Nevertheless, I am back again with a very fresh and burning topic in my life.

From the past 1 month, I was been pestered by 2 cell numbers, which I did not know or recognise.

It all started with Kannada messages from 1 unknown number. Thankfully, I do not understand Kannada very much, so whatever he/she was sending was Greek and Latin for me. I tried to overlook it for some days. I also messaged that person that please stop sending messages as I do not know you. But I think that person did not even understand English. I tried calling that number many times, no one picked it up. I tried from different numbers, but still in vain! The sound of SMS irritated me to core now because now I knew that it will be from that unknown number. One day I got around 15 SMS from that number. I thought of approaching the police at one point of time. My husband was cool about this. You know how men take all these things. He just told me to ignore it. How was I supposed to ignore it if I was been pestered throughout the day with some non-sensical jokes and SMS from some unknown fool? I kept my cool for some more days and then one day, I blew it off. I messaged that number in my broken Kannada that if you ever message me again, I will have to approach the police. That person might have got the message, he stopped for 2 days and on the eve of Ganpati festival, I called him because he had the audacity to message me again. I blasted him, he seemed some college going boy, totally vagabond types. He was speaking in Kannada and I was shouting in English. He was constantly asking me if I did not know Kannada, how come I messaged him in Kannada. But I was so angry on him, if he would have been there in person, I would have slapped him left and right. Thankfully, he did not bother me after that and I was relieved that finally the torture is over.

But, I was wrong. Another number started messaging me in English and he even told me his name, he seemed like a college student too and messaged me saying that he "just" wants friendship from me, nothing else. My blood pressure rose again. I tried in all possible ways to tell him that I am not the person he is looking for. But no, he just won't stop. I was going through all that mental torture again. I even collected information about how to lodge a complaint and where and what all proof do I need for the same? Then one day he sent SMS at 10:30 pm. My husband was sitting with me and I showed it to him and asked him to call that number immediately and clear the matter. Enough was enough. Atul spoke to him in his usual cool demeanor and convinced him that he doesn't know this person and that he should stop messaging at once. Thankfully that person got the hint and he stopped troubling me. From that day I am living in peace, but at the back of mind, I have the fear that something will start again from some other number.

I really do not understand this generation. What are they upto? Don't they have anything better in life than to pester people whom they do not know at all? Flauting a mobile has become a symbol of being "in" the peer group. Mobiles have brought people closer, no doubt, but they have also become a nuisance. I receive at least 10 messages from vendors who want to sell their products. Dr. Batras, Airtel DTH services, Herbs and Spices, Dominos are the regular ones and others do their work dutifully once a while. Now thankfully, I have requested Airtel to stop unwanted SMS from unwanted sources.

I wish Airtel or the mobile phone companies like Nokia, Samsung, Sony come up with some mechanism where we can also block unwanted personal messages coming from unknown people. High end mobiles might be having it, but not everyone has them.

Have you faced something like this anytime and what was your solution for the same?

The difference

Lord Ganesha is my favorite God and I await his arrival every year with so much of anticipation.

As most of you know by now, I shifted to my new house in the month of June and this place seems cut off from inhabitation and other routine things which one sees happening around.

Ganesha celebrations in the Tippasandra house were so different. I could see people with idols or hear them sing bhajans or hear the drums beat while the groups took Ganesha home. I felt that there was something festive going on here. But in my new house, it seemed that only my family had Ganesha in the entire complex and none of the people, I had invited, bothered to even come for the darshan and oblige. All my close friends in Bangalore were working, so they couldn't make it for the day. One Marathi family came for the morning aarati and my immediate neighbor came for the evening aarati. That's it. That was it. That were our celebrations for the year, with just 4 family members in the house. The human contact was so minimal that I hardly felt that there was a huge festival being celebrated in the other parts of the city and the country.

Cut to my house in Dombivli, my hometown which is Maharashtra, where at least 100 people visit my home for Ganesha darshan. My mom's friends from the train, from her trekking group, from her other groups come over. My dad also knows a lot of people in the town as ours was amongst the first medical stores in Dombivli and my dad has been helpful to many people in times of emergencies. All the members in the society come over with their children. So it is really an event to look forward to and be happy about. At least 10 people are always present in the house during the evening hours. I became nostalgic and thought of those good old days. I wanted to be a part of those celebrations, at least this year, after 6 long years, but then destiny had something else in store for me. Never mind, I shouldn't think about what should have happened, but should be happy about being able to welcome Lord Ganesha in my new house.

I will leave you with a thought..

Does moving up the ladder in the so-called society and owning a house in a huge complex, far from our families and friends cut us off from the human contact and leave us self-centred and more privacy driven?

Or is this just a phase till we get to know people around in the society and befriend them and improve contacts with them?