Writing Itch And My Telephone Line

Have you ever tried to reconnect a severed telephone cable? Not many would have.
And why should any one do that? Most of the people are 'wireless' these days.
Unlike me. I am still attached to the good old BSNL landline and every now and then 
find myself holding the cut ends of a telephone line. If you continue reading this you
will know why I end up with that. But before that, a bit about re connecting the cut 
ends.

Please see the picture. If you intend re connecting the ends, first you have to cut 
through the outer black insulation and remove it with out damaging but exposing 
the inner red and green coloured wires. Then you have to separate them and cut 
through their thin plastic covering exposing but not cutting through the very thin 
copper core. once that is achieved, you can join the copper wires by twisting them
together. Sounds easy but not very easy.

I invariably cut through the whole thing half a dozen times and the red
and green wires twice or thrice before I get the copper core out safely. It is a 
frustrating business, and most of the times this will have to be done balancing 
myself precariously on the compound wall in pouring rain or hot sun. I hate to 
attempt it and usually I manage to catch hold of the lineman who is an expert. 
(And the fact that he has bad teeth is a blessing) But I am forced to attempt it 
now and then for some reason or the other.
. 
Given below is the story of my telephone cable.

It is more than two decades since I got my landline telephone connection,

“OYT Special” (Own Your Telephone - and 'special' because I was a dentist

in the Government Hospital and got it through a special quota!) along with a brand

new instrument. I still have it (the connection, not the instrument) and it is through
this landline that I get my internet connection, the so called broadband, which is
just broad enough for my needs. My house is in a place where no 2G, 3G, 4G,
Soniaji or Modiji penetrate and hence my landline is my only contact with 
Google Guruji.

This landline, which mostly runs underground, comes overground one street

and two houses away behind my house and after having run its course over

Mr Braganza’s balcony, through Mr Deshpande’s Mango tree and on top of

Mrs John’s compound wall, passes around Mr Bhatikar’s coconut tree and

then enters my window. The picture underneath gives a fair idea of the terrain

over which my landline (seen here next to the coconut tree) runs.

That being the situation, the line is often disturbed by acts of man,

animal and god and since we have a cordial relation with the BSNL

lineman covering the area, I manage to get the connection restored without

much delay. We keep a constant watch on the line and clear up dead 
plantain leaves and mango twigs fallen on the line as soon as we notice them 
and also hasten to shoo away the monkeys which repeatedly invade Mr Deshpande's 
mango tree. Once the line was hanging low and got entangled in the horns of a stray 
cow which had made a casual visit to the empty plot next to my house and after 
some very anxious moments we managed to to lure the cow closer to our 
compound with some bananas and tactfully release our broadband with the help
of the special implement which I have kept for use in such contingencies!

One of the heavy coconut leaves fell on the line last week and the telephone cable was

cut. It was repaired by the lineman. Yesterday I found another leave fallen on the line. 
Since the base of the leaf was still attached to the coconut tree, the line had been 
pulled to one side but not broken.I wanted to avoid more damage to the line and so, 
using the cement fencing material stacked against the compound as foot hold

and risking my joints and ligaments, I climbed on to the high compound wall, managed to
get hold of the fallen leaf, gently separated it from the tree and in an effort to throw it as far
from the tree as possible, threw it squarely on the telephone cable, which I was 
trying to protect!

My stupid act severed the line very efficiently. I called the lineman but he was away

on leave. With some difficulty I recovered the two cut ends and was overjoyed to see
that the cable had been cut in such a way that about half an inch of inner copper 
wire had been exposed nicely on both the ends.

I have managed to join them temporarily and have been able to send this post 
across. Hope the ends hold till the line man returns from his leave.