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

"No, I won't take you to America with me" and a quick update on life

Since we got back from our hiking adventure, I've been spending a lot of time on college campuses. Right now I've got some friends from the states who are here helping with the research that I'm doing.

Basically, this research looks at the similarities and differences between college students in the U.S. and college students in northern India (probably one of the most culturally diverse places in the world). We look at a lot of different aspects of the college students life - hobbies, interest, and future plans... how this generation is different from the last... how western culture is influencing India... how religion is (or is not) important to the newest generation of Indian adults. From this simple survey we've had some really good responses, and the one-on-one meetings that often follow have been really encouraging to me. Daily I'm learning so much more about this place that has become home and these people who are now my neighbors. I'm having the opportunity to learn from them, and at the the same time I'm able to share with them also. I've been doing this for the last 3 or 4 months months (since my full-time language learning ended), but the last two weeks have been much more focused on it. Good times.

Today though, I had a funny thing happen. When I approach a person or a group I generally say "hello" or something similar in English. The Hindi word "namaste" is a little formal, and college students don't really use it much. Plus, this helps to gauge the level of English they speak and I decided from there if we're going to talk more in Hindi or English. Well, before I had a chance to say much more than hello, I heard a girl at the back of the group say (in Hindi), "He can have a visa made for me!"

The group laughed, I chuckled a little, and then switched the conversation over to Hindi. She was mortified when she realized I understood. The other girls started giggling, the guys laughed pretty hard, and she quickly found a reason to head off in another direction.

Other than though, it was a really great morning. My friend and I who were doing surveys had some really good responses from both students and administrators, this afternoon he was able to have some really beneficial follow up conversations this evening while I was in language class.

These guys helping with what we're doing will be here through the end of the month, and I'm really excited to see how they'll continue to further the projects we're working on!