The performance of the newly commissioned crossbar exchange was not exciting. At Mambalam. According to SY Krishnaswamy, then writing in the Hindu, some thirty years ago, if you dial Kittu you got Kuppu. When you did dial Bittu you were through to Bandavadekar Tribhuvan Das. He declared that the exchange staff, must have, after some experience, compiled a list, that could match which wrong number you should dial in order to reach your right party!

I often get the calls destined for Vinod Dua.

"Is that six - zero - eight - three - three - eight?"

"Of course, yes!"

"Call Vinod!"

"There is no Vinod on this line, Madam"

"Is it not six - zero -..."

"Of course, of course... but this instrument works for somebody other than Vinod. See! This is what I call as the right wrong number. The number is right but the party is wrong!"

Did you notice wrong numbers have declined lately? In those days, the telephone instruments had cams, teethed gear and governors. It demanded the skills of a trained watchmaker to make them function. The Strowger two-motion selectors to which they were reporting, also needed extensive adjustments of the relays, their operate currents and their so called release lags.

For the desirable stability in speed, today's telephone instruments boast crystals. The adjustments to the relays have been completely done away with. Today's logic is ruthless - it accepts just zero or one. No compromise to other values.

If it were all that simple, how come they were not exploited in those days? The packaging technology of the solid state was the villain. The scale of operation and the volume of production have lately multiplied. When inducted originally, the Winchester drives were expensive - now they find accommodated in every Personal Computer. Crystals were traceable only amidst the sophisticated radio transmitters. Now you can see them in the inexpensive wrist watches.

The  quality in industry and consequently in the living has been improving  - our own next-to-nothing contribution notwithstanding. When a repairman opens a modern telephone instrument or a TV, what can he attend to ? Nothing! There is just nothing to adjust or he can meddle with. There are no relay springs whose temper he can tamper with. These devices work or do not work. That is all. Recovery is by substitution - of the faulted one by a good printed circuit board.

Look around yourself. You will discover plenty of such examples. What happened to the panelling work peculiar to the doors? Plain flush doors have thrown them out. The Mangalore tiles, carved pillars, the Madras terrace, traditional ramparts and the draw bridges have been donated to the past. The crocodile shaped nut-crackers or the fancy walking sticks are already lost to the posterity.

Compared to modern day technologies, they were cottage industries with handicrafts thrown in. Today's volumes are high. Replication is faster. We can no longer afford the artistic gift-wrap. When technology was low there was room for decoration. You are not going to find a Gujral mural on the face of a super computer!

As technology matures, constant evaluation takes place. The price and performance are made to match. One soon finds that the artistic part in a product is just decorative and not functional. So it shall get the axe.

One day, our future generations will discover that, writing left to  right, margins justified, engaging a dot-matrix printer with thirteen needles, is a luxury that we have allowed ourselves to be pampered with. The guillotine must be applied. When you can view any reference, all the day's newspapers, the day's entertainment and shopping - on the wall plate mounted in the drawing hall, it being the relevant component for that utopia, probably called the flat TV - the wasteful application of the wood derived paper, vegetable inks and above all, of the precious time would be obvious. There could be better occupation than type-setting, power-printing, physical transportation or manual distribution. There will therefore be no newspaper nor any correspondence in hard copy! You do not have to, necessarily, stand articles of this type, either.

Krishnaswamys and Tin Moorthys will, however, continue to raise their opinions in your bedrooms!