I know that you know, but just so that we’re on the same page. It’s 2017. It’s an era full of technological advancements. An era when communication with a fellow human being is easier than ever. There’s WhatsApp, there’s Facebook, there’s e-mail, there’s SMS (but nobody uses them anymore) and above all, there are cell phones.

Those miniature devices that have successfully convinced us that it’s okay to not have a life.

Having said that,  I firmly believe that kids these days have it easy. I know I’m sounding like an 80-year-old but considering the fact that I’m a 90s era kid, itna preachy hona toh banta hai boss.

So yes, the reason why I’m saying that kids these days have it super easy is because they’ll never know the struggle we had to go through.

The struggle of using a landline phone.

*Shivers*

Allow me to elaborate.

1. They don’t have to go through a million people to talk to that one person.

“Aunty namaste.”

“Namaste beta.”

“Aunty Vineet hai kya?”

“Haan ek minute beta. Main bulaati hoon.”

*Waits till eternity for Vineet to come to the phone*

Remember? Remember how we used to hope and pray that it’s the person who we want to talk to that picks up the phone? 

But no.

8 times out of 10, it used to be an annoyed mother or a disappointed father who used to pick up the phone and project the disappointment they had with their kids onto you.

The remaining 2 times, nobody used to pick up the phone.

2. Kids these days will never understand the fear of a parent evesdropping.

Unlike us. Who had to keep an ear out for a ‘heavy breathing’ that used to signify that a parent has picked up an inter-connected phone in the next room and is now listening intently to what we’re talking about.

3. No angry glare from your parents.

Okay, even though we used to be talking on our private landline phones, we used to feel as if we’re talking from an STD booth.

Thanks to the angry glares we used to keep getting from our parents.

And the glare used to turn into gaalis the moment we used to spend more than 5 mins on the phone.

4. Privacy? Woh kya hota hai?

I love it when kids these days complain about a lack of privacy. Makes our struggle look all the more difficult.

Privacy in the landline era was a myth.

The moment you used to get a call, everybody used to flood the room the telephone used to be in.

So much for a heart to heart conversation. 

5. Rainfall? Time for the line to go dead. 

We as kids, had more than one reasons to hate rains and storms. Forget the fact that they used to eat into our playing time. They used to take away from us the one form of instant communication we had. The telephone.

You want to know what’s the quietest thing in the world? 

A dead telephone. The silence is deafening. 

6. Kids today will never know the true essence of a prank call.

Remember 161? Yes, the same number that had saved us from boredom numerous times.

For all the clueless post-millennial kids, 161 was the number we used to dial back in the day and then watch gleefully as the phone used to ring. 

An unsuspecting member of the family would pick it up and used to be greeted by nothing but a cringy ringtone.

And what about those random prank calls? Well kids these days, with their Truecaller infested mobile phones, will never understand what it feels like to call up a random person and then test one’s mimicking skills by making a fool of them.

Yes, we had our restrictions but it’s experiences like these that make up our bittersweet memories.