Direct line above?

The First Phone Call from Heaven
Mitch Albom (2013)

I picked up this book during a long wait at the airport. You fly low-cost, your time is also low-cost (cheap), and they expect you to come early and wait. After reading all his books thus far, it is only natural for me to lay my hand at once. His books deal mainly with important things in life like death, heaven and Godly matters.

This time around, too, he dwells on 'life' after death and incorporates Alexander Graham Bell's invention, the telephone, as the means to receive a call from the heavenly world!

Interestingly, we learn a few snippets here and there about Bell's journey to his invention, which is still being contested by the original discoverer. His invention almost did not make it to the forefront, thanks to the Brazilian King who worked with Bell and the hearing impaired, who insisted that his device be seen.

Despite all the hurdles, it has stood the test of time. In fact, in its infancy, there were suggestions that it could be used to communicate with the departed on the other side of the world.

Bell must have never dreamt, even in his wildest dreams, of the hassles that modern man would face with his invention. For one thing, his wife was hearing impaired, and his device was not mobile.

8 occupants of a small town, Coldwater, Michigan, started receiving calls from the dearly departed ones from heaven, sending the whole town into a tailspin. A usually quiet town becomes abuzz with activities. Out-of-towners started moving in to witness this phenomenon. TV crew move in to capture this news as if they are genuinely interested in helping. Only deep inside, there are there for personal glory and to stir a hornet's nest when there is no trouble. Real estate prices go north. Sales of the particular brand of Samsung model of phone soar. Revenue to the local council boom, business at the local deli skyrockets! Even the congregation at the local church overflows, and the church helpers are stretched thin.

Of course, the naysayers were out in droves to prove the hoax. The excitement proved too much to handle. In short, with the heavenly calls, all hell breaks loose in this usually quiet town.

Not all recipients of the calls are happy. One contractor receives a call from a disgruntled employee who blames his death to his uncaring employer.

In the midst of this, Sullivan Harding, a former Air Force pilot, walks out of prison after serving time for crashing his plane allegedly for misguided orders from communication towers. The recordings, however, went missing, and his toxicology showed impermissible alcohol levels. His wife and the said technician who gave orders were involved in a tragic accident, sending Sullivan and his son's life into a mess.

As the kerfuffle reaches its zenith and Sullivan's young son starts carrying a mobile phone to receive a call from his dead mother, Sulivan decides to put a lid on giving false hope. He uses his connections working in the town newspaper company to get to the bottom of the problem.

With modern technologies, talk is cheap, and we tend to take it for granted. It is only when communication becomes impossible that we really appreciate and long for the little times we indulge in that tete-a-tete or that sweet nothing.

At the end of the day, in the story, there was a plausible explanation for all the calls (almost)- I do not want to be the party pooper!

Matinya seorang patriot! (IP4)*

So the day finally came.... My iPhone 4 which had been patriotically serving me 24/7 over the past couple of years had given up on me. 3,2,1,...poof went the flicker and all the king's men and the king's horses could not put IP4 to tick again. This work horse served its purpose well through all the hard knocks and immersions (in sweaty conditions of the running environment, waterproof casing came in much later) that life had to offer.
The passing of the patriot reminds me of the story of a national laureate's composition  'Matinya seorang Patriot', a critical assessment of the duel of the two greatest Malaccan warriors - Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. We all know the duel, immortalised by P Ramlee's 1957 film.

Usman Awang

The bone of contention here is whether Jebat, the fallen, did the correct thing by avenging for his best friend against a corrupt and unreasonable monarch who had their own yes-men and plenty of cloud and power over the people.
The eternal question is whether Jebat showed disrespect to the hierarchy or acted in good faith to right the wrong and for natural justice for the general public the Malacca Sultanate. Fighting against the revered establishment is alien culture but then there is only so much a person take lying down. Soon or later, after taking much beating, the single strand of hay is going to crack the camel's back.

"Mr. Watson, come here! I need you!"*

*The famous first words spoken by Dr Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant, Mr. Thomas Watson on the first phone.


A mobile phone rings when a lady is undergoing a gynaecological and a Pap smear examination in a gynae clinic. What would a normal warm blooded vertebrate educated of a Malaysian lady worth of her salt do in a delicate and personal situation as this? Well, pick up the phone and start yakking while the good doctor finishes his work, what else (duh!).
In another instance, after waiting for 40 minutes to see a doctor for a 2-minute consultation, the phone rings. Again the good Malaysian says, "Sorry ah!" and goes into a frenzy answering his call walking aimlessly around the consultation room talking on top of his voice oblivious to happenings of the surroundings. I am just waiting for a day for someone to walk out his house or clinic naked as most people go into a trance once their cell phone rings. In fact at one juncture,the Mayor of new York was contemplating banning the usage of cell phones in its streets due to abnormally high incidences of road vehicle accidents involving pedestrians-on-phones who tend to forget the cardinal rule of crossing the road - look before you leap!
In the cozy ambiance of a cineplex in Kuala Lumpur, a cell phone rings at the height of the climax before the intermission of a Hindi movie. A Bangladeshi answers his call on top of his voice telling directions to his caller trying to outdo the decibels emitted by the crying heroine in the movie. How do I know he is giving directions? It cannot be anything else when he says right, left, Puduraya and Leboh Ampang in the same breath.
Recently it was heard on RTM Minnal news that the Malaysian Hindu Sangam had advised all temple committees all over the country to ban the use of mobile phones in temples. Its president reiterated that some ringtones are obviously too sultry to be heard in public, what more in the divine house of God. In my humble opinion, it is aimed at the humble servants of God who decided to give up everything in life for service of God. The priests, being human as they are, are sometimes tempted to answer his ringing phone while performing his religious obligations at the altar as curiosity takes the better of them! Somehow the idiot phone can be a nuisance as it always seem to ring at the most inconvenient time.
Taking about ringing at an embarrassing moment, I once received a phone call while answering nature's call on the other end (pun not intended). In midst of the conversation, I used the flush. The caller on the other side of the line was curious on the sound to which I replied, "You do not want to know!"

A bare necessity after food and clothings

These days everyone is clinging on to a cell phone from a vagabond and a pauper to a CEO. To them, every call is a billion dollar deal struck and they have to answer it against all all odds. The sales assistants at the departmental stores and the security guards seem more interested in mobile friend than giving undivided attention to their jobs - i.e. answering to customers' demands or manning their sentry posts respectively. 

Bell's first phone (1875)

I am sure Dr Alexander Graham Bell, his assistant Mr. Thomas Watson and Elisha Gray (who invented the telephone about the same time, but lost in the patent ownership after a long legal battle) did not envisaged these problems when they embarked on their discovery. 
That just reminds us of the Digi newspaper Chinese New Year advertisement where all the family members at the dinner table are busy tied to their phones on their ears giving two hoots to the true spirit of the reunion.

Martin Cooper with his invention,
mobile phone (Apr 3, 1973)

Every technology will eventually find its true place in society. Whatever happened to the ever popular spiraling toy of the 70s, Yoyo? It used to be every child's dream birthday or Christmas presents just to be lost in the annals of time. This time around the new found toy seem to excite not only the young but the grown-ups alike, with internet facilities tied to it. It looks set to revolutionize the way we live in (for good or worse) and helps to satisfy our ever increasing appetite for instant gratifications!  One guy in New York actually delivered his child  in the traffic jam stranded cab with things he picked up on 'You Tube'.
Maybe the way we, Asians, are acting with the phone issue is because we are the nouveau rich and are becoming self centered. With time and education, phone etiquette may eventually be second nature.