It so often happens that just when you’ve shrugged off the mental inertia and strung together a train of thoughts, an interruption ensues that derails it. In this case it was the incessant, unrelenting vibration of the mobile phone. The convenience of the mobile phone is a double-edged sword – Murphy’s law swings both ways regarding receiving and not receiving calls – stop what you’re doing to take the call and it will most likely be a telemarketer; ignore or switch off the phone only to miss an urgent communication. I reluctantly glanced at the screen. It was from an unknown caller, the worst possible call to receive when you’re in the middle of something as the decision to accept or reject it isn’t as black and white as it could be for one from a known person. I waited for the call identification software to help me, but it had no inkling of who it was either. Having been disturbed already, I took the call. A feminine voice, soft and measured, broke into a “A very good afternoon to you sir” and proceeded to enquire how I was doing and how my day had been so far. I was tempted to respond curtly that it had been spoiled by her calling me, but ended up replying feebly that I was fine and that the day had been good ‘so far’ (such subtleties are lost on most callers, let alone unknown ones). Emboldened by this, she then introduced herself, providing details of name and occupation. She was apparently aware that I was running a quiz club at my office, and said it would be wonderful if a few avid quizzers would be able to participate in a charity quiz her organization was conducting to raise funds for the destitute. I was now like the proverbial deer in the headlights. I stammered and mumbled a reply in the affirmative, committing the participation of more than one team from my company. Her objective a resounding success, she thanked me profusely and hung up the call. I now had to hope that the management would approve of participation in yet another charity event; else the expenses were coming from my pocket!
I have lost count of the umpteen times such phone calls from NGOs, banks, insurance and other services have been able to solicit a positive response from me, at my expense. Wary of my susceptibility to such calls, I have now begun to mostly ignore unknown callers by creating my own blacklist, based on prior experiences. However, the odd outlier appears now and then, which I somehow manage to wriggle myself out of. One also needs to be careful as con artists may masquerade as representatives of such organizations, tricking people into revealing personal details. While the above-mentioned sources are the most common types of unknown callers, technically they are classified as unwanted or nuisance calls rather than ‘wrong’ numbers as the call was intentional, although the person receiving it could say it was wrong! Of late, the government has also gotten into the act. A pre-recorded message is played to convey various information, ranging from giving-up LPG subsidy to the Prime Minister’s musings on all and sundry. Politicians have also been known to use the same technique to canvass for votes, and convey other propaganda.
Coming to wrong numbers, there are several categories of people who misdial a number. I find it quite amusing when people dial the wrong number and then ask for your identity instead. “Who is this?” they demand to know, performing an identity check when an unexpected voice answers the call instead of the intended recipient (it is also the modus operandi of many oafs and more dangerously, stalkers). Some of them also do not take ‘sorry, wrong number’ for an answer and keep calling back, hoping the correct person will eventually answer the phone. They will insist they have the right number, so you will have to then ask for a digit-by-digit recitation of it so you can point out the error. Then there are those who cannot believe they got the number wrong, and will keep asking if you are sure there hasn’t been a mistake, as if you were pulling a prank on them. Only a witty or snappy retort can settle the matter sometimes. I was once mistaken for a travel agency; the person calling wanted to know the schedule of the bus to Hyderabad. I politely answered that the number he had dialled was that of a residence. The man however was obstinate and called back a number of times asking the same question. On confronting him, he cheekily said that even if I was admittedly not the travel agency, I could at least give the information as a courteous gesture! Not to be outdone, I dryly remarked that as a sign of courtesy, I had decided not to report him to the police, after which the calls stopped.
Another classic example of a misdialled number is when the number previously held by an entity or person is allotted to someone else. Wrong numbers result due to the prior owner either not updating the new number on their contact details, or when the person dialling is unware of the change in number. We had the ‘privilege’ of facing this issue when we moved into Adarsh Gardens about 2 decades ago. At the time, the phones provided by the apartment did not support outgoing calls outside of the complex, so we had to get a BSNL landline connection. It turned out that the number formerly belonged to one “IT Solutions private limited”. We would receive at the minimum 2-3 calls a week asking if it was “IT Solutions”, which continued for almost about a year! It was a great relief when the calls reduced in frequency, and finally stopped one day. Several years later, I located the company by chance when on a walk. And ironically, the first job interview I attended out of college was at the company Caritor, which I discovered was the erstwhile IT Solutions! As it happened I did not land the job; perhaps I should have told the interviewer that as our tormentor for many years, they could have offered me the position as some consolation!