My Mom's Best Friend

Nothing special about it…It’s a simple black Panasonic cordless phone. No geeky stuff, it doesn’t even have an impressive LCD to announce the name of the caller (what’s the point anyway? You’d know whose calling when you answer it & the ladies of the house have never been known to be prejudiced against wrong numbers!)

That is my Mom’s best friend. No mobiles for her, thank you! Every morning I am reminded by her how I’ll die soon because of the two phones I carry. How am going deaf, losing my memory cells & possibly having the 1st or 2nd stage of cancer in the brain, throat, mouth & God-knows-where!! Add to that the case of my fingers going funny because of texting 24X7 and my eye-sight (something I’ve never been proud of, I wear specs) going worse by the day.

“Wherever Mom goes the cordless follows.” And it’s better than any GPS tracking device in locating her position in the house. Also it happens to be the best way to grab her attention, all I have to do is give a call on the landline & wherever she is, Mom will mysteriously appear!

The handset always gives a hint about the menu for the day..You don’t have to be a Sherlock Holmes to know what am saying. A careful observation of the handset reveals a lot. Fine flour dust, specks of green veggies, a little sauce sometimes-it’s enough to keep you guessing.

Every night the phone is lovingly put to sleep. And God save you if you were the last one to use it & have forgotten to charge it at night!

Needless to say when there’s a power cut or the line just decides to “die”, the power supply & telephone exchange people run for cover…

Did I mention there’s also a regular fixed line at home in case of emergencies???