From-here-there-everywhere

My encounter with a rotary dial type telephone (Late fifties)  Having a telephone at home in the late fifties was a luxury.  Only senior officials, doctors and the rich could afford it.   Almost all phones were manual, I mean not the dialling type. One had to pick up the receiver and the manual operator would pick it up and ask us for the person/number to be connected. Naturally I was not familiar with the rotary dial types which at that time were available in Mumbai and Delhi ( I think Madras and Calcutta came later).   In 1959 or so, my family traveled from Bareilly to Bangalore. My cousin also accompanied us.We stopped for a couple of days at Mumbai (then Bombay) to stay with my mother’s uncle who was employed in the telephone department.   My cousin and I were thrilled to see a dial type phone in his residence in Matunga.  We were itching to try it.   Naturally we were apprehensive to try it when the elders were around. When ...