Ode to the Missed Call

Living in a land of prepaid phones is pretty nice most of the time. You only spend money on the minutes that you use. You can buy special “tariffs” to make text messages cost a fraction of a cent or make your phone calls cheaper. Also, if someone calls you they pay. It doesn’t cost the recipient to receive calls or texts.

One down side is that voicemail is almost unheard of here. “Leave me a message and I’ll cal you back,” just doesn’t work here. In America if you didn’t leave me a message you probably wouldn’t get a call back. I don’t have that liberty here because there just isn’t a way for you to leave one.

Instead people use the “missed call” and it can have lots (and lots) of meanings. Here are just a few examples:

1) I meet a new friend. We want to get together for lunch next week. He gives me his number and then says, “Give me a missed call.” I call him and as soon as the number shows up on his phone I hang up. He’s got my number now and can put in address book.

2) A predetermined meaning can sometimes be behind a missed call. A friend of mine is coming to my house for the first time. He says, “I’ll give you a missed call when I reach,” so when he gets to the intersection on the main road he gives me a missed call. I know to go out and meet him and he didn’t have to spend any money.

3) My friend is short on cash. He doesn’t want to spend the 2 cents that it costs to call me, so he calls and as soon as it starts to ring he hangs up. This means “You call me and spend your money.” This one can get frustrating, especially if they call and call and call if you don’t answer the first time… I mean, I can’t reach I my pocket and answer while riding my motorcycle. I like to play ‘try and answer the phone before he hangs up’ not because I’m worried about the extra few cents but just have a little fun and maybe sharpen my reflexes.

-एरिक