Hutch you are trying to reach is currently switched off!

Ever noticed people in India switch off their cell phones every now and then for no reason. Maybe the battery died because they placed a call which went on for too long.

Well, no one really places long calls but people don't mind talking endlessly if they received the call. Thanks for the concept of free incoming calls. Or maybe they are visiting a library or a museum or a important meeting where they had to switch it off.

Then again I have never seen or heard anyone go to a library or a museum. And no one turns the cell phone off in a meeting or while having dinner. So what triggers the moment when the cell phone needs to be put to sleep?

Lately cell phones have been playing a tune or a song for the caller to hear instead of the regular phone ring. If people have time to download the fanciest of ringtones and the playback tone for the caller, why is voicemail not catching up in India. Isn't it a nice feature to have especially when people turn off cell phones without reason.

Would it help if Shahrukh Khan or Sachin Tendulkar go on TV to introduce the concept and utility of voicemail.
However SMS usage has really caught on in India and it's part of daily or even hourly routine! Why do Americans not use SMS as much?

I know the geeks out there have a quick explanation about different standards of wireless communication in US (GSM, CDMA, etc.) which make text messaging not easy but I think it's more of a trend which just didn't take off in US. Americans can leave a 5 minute long voicemail without any problem.

Should there be a time limit on the voice message?
I thought of why answering machines for landlines were not popular in India. One explanation I got was that there's always somebody home to pick up the phone and take a message.

But then there are working couples who are out all day and could utilize this device.
Everyone in India has an email address or actually multiple email addresses. Most of the people seem to take the system generated userids….

sanjay_1975@hotmail.com, sanjaysanjay@gmail.com and even keep the system generated passwords like swnfmt234x#sghw just like they have accepted other things in life as given.

And it's common for couples to have one email address….rahul_rashmi@yahoo.com…romantic, is it?

Replying to email is optional. Well before you expect a reply you have to somehow get the message in their inbox. There are good chances that their mailbox is either full or they haven't used the account in the last 2 years.

If you tell them about their mailbox not accepting emails, be prepared to receive 3 more email addresses- coolguy@indiatimes.com….joshijoshi@rediff.

com…:) Then one day your relative confirms that they did send you an email and when you tell them that no email landed in your inbox they blame it on hotmail service. It's been acting up lately :)
And one day you actually do receive a mail but unfortunately it's blank. But I do believe that my relative spent 45 minutes in a cybercafe and due to some reason we ended up with a blank one.

But hey it's better than receiving nothing. When I call them about the blank email, there hutch is turned off !