When phones were not smart, but talks were done from the heart, that era of telecom which will never return:

News India Live, Digital Desk: Today, when we have shining 5G smartphones in our hands and we scroll for hours, sometimes we feel like looking back a little. Today’s generation (Gen-Z) may not believe it, but many of us have lived that era when the phone was not in the pocket, but in a yellow colored box (PCO) on the corner of the locality.

Today let’s press the ‘rewind’ button a little and take a trip to that time when talking was not cheap, it used to be an ‘event’.

That yellow box and the value of 1 rupee
Today the face can be seen on video call, but the person with that yellow roof PCO Booth It was something else entirely. Remember? Carrying loose coins in your pocket and seeing the STD call meter running makes your heart beat faster. And the worst feeling was when the conversation remained incomplete and the operator said – “Brother, it’s time, there is a queue behind!” That line, that wait and the tinkle of the one rupee coin are all a sweet memory.

Hello, is the sound coming? (Incoming money also)
If you tell this to today’s children, they will laugh, but it is true. There was a time when if you received a call, you would have to pay for picking up and listening to it (Incoming Charges). The rate was up to Rs 16 per minute, brother! At that time, people were not happy when the phone rang, but were afraid that “the balance will be deducted.” Therefore, people would often disconnect the phone and call back the PCO.

Secret language of ‘missed call’
Today missed call means missed call. In those days, missed call was a whole language.

• “I have reached home” (1 missed call).
• “Call me” (2 missed calls).
  It was not miserliness sir, it was compulsion! This was the smartest way to save balance that Indians invented.

try one’s luck by rubbing one’s nails
Today recharge through Google Pay is done in one second. At that time, going to the shop and asking for a coupon, scratching it carefully with a coin or nail (Scratch Card) and then entering those 16 digits and praying that “it does not get pressed wrong”… that too was a different thrill. And if by mistake the number gets rubbed too much and gets erased, the anger that comes cannot be expressed.

Small Recharge and Lifetime Happiness
Remember that ‘small recharge’ of Rs 10 or Rs 9? By doing that it felt as if I had conquered the world. And then came the ‘Life Time Incoming’ free schemes. SIMs were purchased by standing in queues.

To be honest, today there are many facilities, the internet is fast, the world is at hand. But the comfort of that slow world, of those small Nokia phones and those PCO booths, is lost somewhere in today’s smartphones.