HELLO... KAUN BOL RAHA HAI????

23^rd March was my birthday...........

Okay, you can wish me even now, I won’t mind. After all, its not a FIRST COME FIRST SERVE type of wish.What did you say just right now???
 “HAPPY  BELATED BIRTHDAY”??
Well, thank you so much. :)

Anyways, I am writing this post not because I want you readers to wish me (well, I do want that), but to talk about an experience I’m sure you would relate to. So, the thing is, I have roughly 70-80 contacts in my phonebook, which I think is too much. So I was hoping that whoever calls or messages to wish me, mujhe pata hoga wo kaun hai. But still, there were many calls I received that were from unknown numbers!! HADD HAI MALAB! If you want to wish me, call from the number I have saved with me na, dusro ke phone kyu use karte ho? So, it was like those audio rounds in music reality shows where I had to guess the person from their voice, and let me tell you, I did quite a good job! Though there were 2-3 instances when I got a call from an unknown number and had the following conversation with the person at the other end of the phone:

THEY: Hey, Happy Birthday!!

ME: Thank You!!
THEY: Did You recognize me?
ME: No.

After that, there was a series of “GUESS TO KARO”, “PEHCHAANO”, “I WAS HOPING YOU WOULD RECOGNIZE MY VOICE” type of games. These instances reminded me of the golden old days of the landline phone, when there was no caller ID and I had a whole list of relatives calling one day or the other. The telephone ring sounded so exciting that I would often rush towards the phone to pick it up. And then there were these dooooorr ke rishteddar, you know long lost relatives who I had no idea about.
I was a very reserved, shy kid back then, so I found it irriating when I had no idea as to who the other person was and still had to chat with them, many a times just so that I could tell my parents who had called after all. 

A maternal aunt of mine, my mother’s cousin, used to call almost every weekend to talk to my mom, you know... to catch up. So earlier when I used to pick up the phone, she would say, “Hello Beta. Mummy ko phone dena.”, I would shout out loudly..... “MUMMMYYYYYYYY.... PHONE HAIIII AAPKAAA!!” This continued for a few years. But then I got jawaan, and was no longer that kid with the soft voice. That baritone in my voice was apparent. So one day the aunt called. I picked up the phone, said hello and she said rightaway, “JEEJA JI Namaste. Didi Hain?”
I could die laughing that very moment, but somehow I kept the firm voice intact and replied, “Namaste. Haan bulaata hoon."

I still literally LOL whenever I think of that instance. There have been other times when unknown numbers or wrong numbers have turned out to be really funny. Once I got a call from someone, shouting as to why the pizza hadn’t reached him yet. At first I told him he had dialled the wrong number. Few minutes later he called again, and this time I also said angrily, “Wait. Its on the way!!”

Then of course there are these calls from matrimony sites. My sister’s name was registered at one of those matrimony centres where you submit your marriage profile and get to look at others' as well. So we often got calls from the interested families telling us about their son. We in our family used to talk seriously then. Later, roughly 2-3 weeks after my sister had got married, we got a call again. Have a look at the conversation I once had with one such interested party:

LADY: Hello, I got this number from that matrimony centre.
ME: Okay. So I guess you are looking for a girl for your son?
LADY: Yes.
ME: Oh, the girl you’re looking for here has gotten married by the way.
LADY: Oh. Ok.
(I could imagine seeing her make the sad smiley face :(, so I decided to cheer her up.)
ME: Anyways, do you have a younger daughter also?
LADY: Yes. 10 year old. Why?
ME: Never Mind!!
_____DISCONNECTED______

So my first attempt at trying my luck went down the drain. Few days back, I did get a call from a matrimony site asking "Sir, Kya Aap Rishta Dhund Rahe Hain?".
So, you never know ;)

Anyways, I am looking at the word limit of this post and it seems to be getting too much. So I will leave it here.

And before I go, remember my birthday next year then. No Gifts Please.

Until next time
Take Care :)