Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Dial xxxx to get entertained… ;)


As a journalist, I always need to speak to people (sometimes even if I don’t want to) - may be by meeting them or by having a telephonic conversation. Btw, this new era of calling people and getting their comments is called ‘telephonic journalism’. (As we journos are getting tech savvy, newer methods are also coming up ;). So, getting back to the original topic (as I tend to fluctuate very easily), I have come across three hilarious ‘tele-talks’ till now. They are listed below in chronological order (to remain unbiased :) –

Tele-talk no. 1: These wannabe singing sensations are a real pain to one’s ears. One chance and they can do anything to make their voice heard (literary!). I was doing an article on the occasion of Navratri and Dandiya. The topic was ‘will Falguni Pathak have a successor or will she reign as a Dandiya Queen forever’. I never liked the topic, though. So I had to call some to-be-singing sensations of reality shows. I was talking to one such ever-enthusiastic participant DD (name withheld without request), who said ‘Bas Falguni ji ko retire hone dijiye, agala Dandiya King toh main hi hoo’. When asked for his favourite Dandiya song he started singing a song from the movie ‘Pyaasa’- not the classic Guru Dutt one, it didn’t have anything related to Dandiya, but the super duper flop movie (wrongly) starring Aftab Shivdasani and Yukta Mookhey. The song is such a pain in itself and listening to the wannabe DD sing it gala-fadke for good 5 minutes was a real earache!

Tele-talk no. 2: This was when I was given a one day deadline to finish a story on ‘World Disability Day’. I had to talk to NGO spokespersons and ask them whether they were organizing any event for the same. I googled (see, I told you we are getting tech savvy!) some NGOs working with the specially challenged. Then, I called NGO xyz, a lady picked up the phone. Her voice sounded that she was in a hurry to finish off her work and go home to catch up with some pending house work. I asked her whether they were planning any event for tomorrow i.e. World Disability Day, she said without even hearing me properly- ‘Arey, yeh kya hai? Aisa kaise kar sakte hai aap? Why didn’t you call me earlier, on such a short notice how can I organize something for the WDD?’ I explained to her that I didn’t want her to organize anything but was just asking if they had any plans to do so and I hung up. I knew journalism has a lot of power, but it also has the power of organizing events to publish reports, that I didn’t know. ;)

Tele-talk no. 3: Another ‘Day’- Human Rights Day. The same old thing to do- call up NGOS and find out any events on this day and also what do they think about Human Rights and blah blah blah…. I called up an ‘international’ NGO’s board-line in Delhi. (I think, I had got a wrong number...). For the first few seconds there was pin-drop silence and suddenly it started- ‘Baar baar phone karte ho tum, kyu mujhe tang karte rehte ho… Kyu mujhe hamesha phone karke pareshan karte ho. Kal bhi phone kiya tha na tumne? Kyu, kyu, kyu?’ And behold, now comes the climax- ‘Arey itne bhi nahi samjhe, April fool banaya tumhe…ha ha ha.’ For two minutes, I didn’t get what had happened. I tried to regain consciousness and then hung up. I definitely has dialed a wrong number with this bhayanak caller tune. But I didn’t mind the dumb joke as I was bored that day and I laughed my heart out at this one. Funneee..I must say…

2 comments:

Akshoni said...

third tele talk was tooooo good best of luck for future calls....
:) :) :)

हिनाकौसर खान said...

tula bari ashi bhanat lok bhetat..awadal..mastch experience hota tujha....