pushing_buttons 

On  his  first ever telephone call on this planet, it  is  said, Alexander  Graham Bell, invited Watson to come down; he had something to tell him. History did not record if Watson did ever come down, met the boss and carried out the instructions. Rumours are that Watson disconnected swearing it was a wrong number! I suspect, however, he did not push the right button. Therefore  he could not read the message of the boss. That is why no disposal has been indicated in the history

[According to the chronicles, Bell had spilled some acid. So he spontaneously beckoned Watson to help him out in cleaning the mess. As popularly believed it wasn't an intended test for the telephone. In fact Bell was all along working on a device that could make life a lot easier for those who have been challenged on the hearing faculty. It is certain he did not visualize 1-800, collect calls or the Internet at that time]

TGV is the superfast train of the National French National Railways. They speed at some 400 kmph. Considering that the ground velocity of a jet  plane is only 800 kmph, this is something. At the Lyon station,  you  do not request the pleasure of a babu  for making  a reservation. You push the buttons. You buy your tickets. Often for a train leaving in the next fifteen minutes!

Information is power. The installation of a rural telecom  machine, at Kittur, they said, multiplied the bank deposits four fold (It was also believed that buffaloes started yielding more milk). That is the power of communication infrastructure. Farmers are keen to know the selling prices in the distant mandis before they decide where to dispatch their produce. Information is required. Urgently, reliably, Without fail, without interruption

Where can you get information from? From the Internet for example. That is also the fashion of the day. The Internet can tell us about the stock market - instantaneously. The Internet can educate you on the trends. It can advise what stocks to buy and what to sell. What more do you want? Push the right buttons. Interact. Effect the sales. Prosper. Life is so simple...

The art of pushing buttons is recent. Remember those days when there used to be a rotary dial for making the selection on the telephone line? It used to whine with a typical karrack-tak each time you rotated the dial. You enjoyed listening to that music. Things are kicking - you used to assure yourself. It is the day of the push buttons now. Not only on the washing machines and the micro-wave ovens, tomorrow they will pervade on the doors to doormats, dishes to dish-washers.

The current style is also the voice interactive system. You access the service, push one if you desire the departure details or two for arrival information. You push hash if you want to be explained in Hindi and star to select English. On the prompt, push the codes of the desired train. Presto! the needed particulars are on the line. Fantastic! It is a game of pushing the buttons. The right ones at that

Voice interactive systems have also penetrated into the  banks. The buttons let you know the balance in your account or buy a demand draft instantaneously. The Directory Enquiry and the AIDS awareness campaign have become feasible, thanks to the technology of button pushing

We expect our auto drivers to be polite, porters in the station to be reasonable, policemen to be cheerful, civil servants to be civil. What for? If they are replaced by push buttons you would not need any one of them. If you do not need them any more what would those poor souls do? Commit suicide?

Have you ever wondered why you needed a babu to push the buttons at the rail reservation office? Can you not do it yourself? You would do that if you were in the Lyon station. The babu conglomerate will let you know that you cannot make out a key from a kangaroo. They only know which key to press and more importantly when. That is why they are needed.

Too bad. They do not yet know that you needed only one button to push and that too on every occasion. That is -

So  you want to thank me for this article. Yes, you can. Le'mme tell you how. Call the machine on my home number. Press three on the prompt. Choose nine in the next round if you are wearing green shirt. In the  third  cycle, select four on Mondays. On other days, zero except between seven and nine in the morning when you shall dial eight. You will hear a beep. You can start recording your appreciation.  You have to however complete it before the next double beep, which occurs ten seconds before closing down. If you want to give an extended message you can request so, pressing six instead of nine in the second round, providing you had not taken garlic in the last six hours

Have a nice day! Keep pushing buttons!!