The dead Katta kommunication lines…

‘Katta’ - a Marathi term which means a small piece of brick wall or a cement construct that is about waist high; which may or may not be built to be used as a place to sit upon but is often used as though that was the exact purpose. Typically these katta’s are the boundary walls of buildings, schools, housing society’s or any cement or wooden wall like things where a few people can rest their laurels upon. Even the small flight of stairs of a public library or college can be referred as ‘katta’ by the city urchins.

Back in the 90’s – it was the school and college days when we used to use the katta as our daily meeting place. Our katta was the boundary wall of the my building. Those were the days when mobile phone wasn’t invented; so the only mode of communication used to be the phone landlines. And back then, the local calls between landlines weren’t free and unlimited. Also, another disadvantage of a landline was that it was meant more for the entire family than as a personal and private asset. And each time it rang, it rang loud and clear for everyone inside the house to notice of a phone call. And talking with friends on the phone was and probably is even today, not considered a very welcome thing by the parents community. Thus, calling up a bunch of friends every evening and coordinating when and what time to meet would require at least 5 to 10 phone calls; more if you had a larger group. So there had to be a better way of communication.

We had two techniques – the one ring technique and the bike horn signal. While the later was used to indicate the arrival of any of the katta gang members, the prior would be used as a early warning system. So typically a missed call or a single ring on one’s landline in the evening would probably mean that one of the katta members was ready to meet at the katta; and that others should follow suit. One ring technique was very effective, as it doesn’t any charge to give just one ring and then hang up before the other person answered. This, in today’s mobile world is still a in-use technique, but is now called as missed called technique.

Come to think of it, when used effectively this one ring technique could probably be used like Morse code; maybe half as comprehensive.

So back in the 90’s, evening time would be when the first katta member would arrive and announce his arrival with a tit-ta-tee horn signal. It’s funny how the developed world has come to shun the use of horn as something that should be used only in case of dire emergency or is considered impolite if used casually. Thankfully in Pune, like in any city in India, the vehicular traffic is so high and chaotic that the use of the horn is so frequent, no-one really minds it. But yes, the Katta gang was considerate of the fact of trying to avoid the use of bike horns at night; when most of the civilized society members would be in their beds.

It is amazing to think back about those days, almost 2 decades ago, without the inventions of mobile phones and internet and broadband; there was never a situation when we felt crippled by lack of means to communicate and stay in touch. Today, when all of the katta members have grown out of their bikes and baggy jeans and are economically well off to afford all the latest means of communications including the free stuff like the social networking sites; none of the means are used to communicate or even keep in touch!