#Bulk Voice Calls for Elections in Maharashtra

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Bulk Voice Calls for Elections in Dadra

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Communication –Hello! To …… 😊😊😊(emoji)

In today’s digital world a simple handheld device, call it a smart phone, can allow you to talk, send messages (text) as SMS or WhatsApp, receive, and send emails, take photos, or shoot video and send them to anyone anywhere.

I am reminded of my first twenty years (1955 to 1975) of life from childhood to first employment when the means to communicate were limited to Post &Telegraph and so-called telephone (better known as land line today). Both these were government-controlled departments in India. This covered personal, social, and business communication.

Written communication was with the sole help of Post & Telegraph Office. Post office had three types of stationary- post card which was open, inland letter (closed but single leaf and envelop wherein you can enclose a leaf of paper. All three had printed postal stamp which was the fee for the carrier. The tariff was same irrespective of destination within India. Post card was for paise five (now Rs. One), inland letter was Paise ten (now may be Rs. 2) and envelop with 10 gms weight for Paise twenty-five (now Rs. 5).

I recall, as a child, that my father and mother would receive a letter (mostly inland letter) once a month from their relatives from Karad and Sangli (both in Maharashtra). News mainly pertained to evens like birth or marriages or deaths and some about education of children. I had to resort to written communication once I left home to go to BITS Pilani and became a hostelite. I usually wrote once a month and received one in return. Once in a while I received my money by Demand Draft.

All postal documents were transported by trains and State Transport (S.T.) buses. Some trains had special compartment or bogie assigned to Postal department. Hence these trains were called Mail e.g., Frontier Mail, Toofan Mail or Gujarat Mail. There were some places not having its own post office and hence the address must include both place and post office e.g. At Thakurali but Post Dombivali.

Another fast method of written communication was telegrams by Telegraph Department. Most used the Morse key contraption to transmit the messages. The post or telegraph office had persons who could code and decode the messages for Morse key. My personal experience with telegram was bad. I sent a telegram to my parents who were still in Maharashra village after I got my SSC (Std XI) results in June,1966. It did not reach them in time before they left hometown and that worried them a lot. They made a frantic call from Bombay on their way back to find that I had done quite well. Another instance was when I sent a telegram to my friend from Baroda on his engagement in Delhi. I got my interview call in June 1972 by a telegram from Delhi and we used to send telegram later for interview calls till about 1980.

Voice two-way messages were by telephone (called land line today). It was quite an achievement to own a telephone at residence. Most offices had telephones and only Govt. Servants, Doctors, Lawyers and very senior staff of private companies or businessmen had one at home. I got my first residential phone in 1987 at the age of 38. All long-distance calls (called trunk calls) were to be routed manually through telephone exchanges. It would take enormous time and effort to succeed in getting the connection. I recall one of my classmates used to call his parents in Ahmedabad from Pilani some time. He would spend the whole day waiting at the telephone exchange as the call was being routed via Chirawa, Sikar and Jaipur.

During these days (till I think 1975), it was exceedingly difficult to make copies of a message if it needed to go to more than one person. We had carbon copy, photocopy, and ammonia printing then. That was very cumbersome and not clear copies. For more copies, one had to depend on printing and stenciling. I remember in 1979, DGSD purchase orders were stenciled and copies distributed to various parties within Govt and outside.

One major improvement happened with introduction of telex services around 1975. Telex was like two typewriters being linked so that message can be transmitted fast. Only disadvantage was it was mainly for commercial use by offices.

Around the same time (1975~) I think Xerox copy became available to many and copying became easy.

The next major change got introduced in India when Subscriber Truck Dialing (STD) was introduced around 1985. This permitted calling out station and even overseas parties by directly dialing from your telephone without going through an operator at the exchange. But scarcity of land line connections remained a reality. I had to get a radio operated phone connection in 1998 as I could not get a land line connection from Pune telephones after I returned from Japan.

In early 1980s, a small handheld device called pager was introduced and it helped travelling people to be contacted from a landline so that they would call back. It was an improvement over only landline option. It lasted for a couple of years but mainly it was for commercial use.

Around 1985 another big leap was taken in communication when a facsimile (fax for short) was introduced. When connected, fax machine could transmit a document and a drawing or even a photo. The instant sending and receiving was a great leap forward. Initially it was only for commercial use but later it became extremely popular.

On another front, the computer got introduced and made strides. We had a main frame computer in BITS Pilani around1970 (with inputs by punching cards) and by 1987 desktop computers (with complex keys to operate) were available in offices. When I reached Japan in 1990, the laptop had made its appearance. I bought my first laptop (Macintosh) in Japan in 1993.

In Japan, the telephones (land line) were quite easy to get and I got one in less than 24 hours of arrival in 1990. The public telephones were very efficient and easily accessible. The pre-paid cards were extremely popular and most public telephones could be activated by coins or prepaid cards. On Valentine’s day, Japanese girls would gift a prepaid card to boys which would dial only their number.

Communication got a boost when in 1990 the satellite was used to transmit messages and documents. The Indian IT industry benefitted from it and some engineering companies also started using VSAT. I got my first TV satellite dish in Japan to view many European channels in 1993.

When I was in Oman in 1997, I got internet access and to use email. I believe it was just introduced. It was a good facility as my daughter was in Australia and contacting became easy. I also got my first mobile phone in Oman in 1997.

Mobiles became easily available and affordable by 2000. I got my local mobile connection in 2000 and I still have the same mobile no. Then mobiles were used for urgent calls and to send text messages (called SMS).

Internet connections were made available on desktop and toggle for laptop in the initial phase for office use. Internet connection for home use took some time and till then toggle was the only option.

Due to popular and affordable cost of mobile phones, the landline lost its place of importance. Even govt (Pune Telephones and then BSNL) started offering mobile phone connections.

The other development was mobile phones started having more features. The camera was in built in the mobile and one could take pictures. Further development allowed video shooting by mobile phone camera. Next to come was back and front camera.

The service providers started (I think by 2010) to link internet to the mobile and provide data transfer. With this facility, one handheld device could make calls, send text messages, take photos, shoot videos, send messages by internet connections and also view one’s emails.

Around 2005 the international calls were expensive from India, so we had used Skype as paid calls and conference tool. There were some doubts about its security and many other options were being opted for by international companies from UK and Belgium that we worked with.

The introduction of smart phones (compatible to various band widths like 3G /4G) the ease and speed of communication of all types became a reality and affordable. The social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp) became popular. For children and youngsters, the various games and educational videos became extremely useful.

Then came cloud technology and a boom of Artificial Intelligence. Everything done on virtual, digital, and social networking platforms gets tracked, analyzed, and thus used to help with recommendations as appropriate.

There is a security threat while all our banking and credit card information is easily available on various Apps. Along with our personal information which is available on social platforms. Hence, cyber security is a thriving business opportunity and interesting working opportunity.

In 2018 the telegraph department finally closed its services and it got replaced by speed post or mobile connectivity. Today post office continues its traditional job of delivering post card, inland letter and envelop but started using air transport for bulk movement.

The biggest benefit of the digital world was during the lockdown due to COVID-19 19. With only a smart phone (tablet or laptop may be better) and Wi-Fi connection, it was possible to conduct classes by teachers for students who were locked down, business meeting with clients and panel discussions among business associates or experts or politicians (elected) or friends. I was able to view virtual musical shows and new released movies and serials on new platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime etc. also attended virtual birthday and wedding anniversary parties online.

In conclusion I will edit the words of Elon Musk:

If you go back a couple of decades, what we take for granted today would seem magic-being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, accessing vast amount of data like an oracle or google. All this progress in communication is easy to use, quick and affordable. Also, its reach is worldwide across countries, regions, languages and people.

Another issue, which has surfaced due to the pandemic in India or similar developing or poor countries, is the divide between haves and have not. Traditional divide of have and have not was based on the wealth/money but present-day divide is based on whether one has a smart mobile/laptop/tablet and Wi-Fi connectivity with adequate data.