The Hindu Business Line : Caller tunes

A few weeks ago, having put my mobile phone on silent mode, I was surprised to find at least half a dozen missed calls from a single number. It was from the Gulf. Who could it be? Thinking that it could be some friend trying to frantically reach me, I returned the call.

“Sir, which country is that?” asked a voice at the other end in Tamil. I told him India. Immediately, the voice at the other end apologised. “Sorry sir, I liked your caller tune very much. That’s why I repeatedly dialled your number,” he said. I was not only left stunned but also poorer by Rs 10.

The caller tune that the Gulf person fell in love was Shakira’s “Hips don’t lie”.

He wasn’t the first person to be bowled over by that song. A few days ago, there was a call from a tele-shopper. In this case, the caller, a woman, wanted to find out if I was interested in the product her firm was marketing. Having got a “no” for an answer, she made a request. “Sir, I want to hear the song. Please don’t take the call when I dial your number again,” she said.

Shakira’s hot number has also drawn curious comments from other friends. But only this tune seems to have received such a good review. An earlier call tune “Tujhe Dekha hain” from “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge” drew an adverse comment from a friend. Another caller tune “Un kutrama, en kutrama” from the Tamil film “Azhagi” had a colleague saying: “It spoils one’s mood.”

Caller tunes of other friends does sometimes make one envy them. A friend in Mumbai has a beautiful carnatic caller tune “Vathapi Ganapathim”. Hats off to the guy who devised the idea of caller tunes of the music/song one hears on dialling a landline or mobile number.

One, telecom companies get revenue and music companies royalty. More that that, these tunes at least in a few cases seem to induce people to make calls! But getting back to the instance of the Gulf caller, it does give credence to what the telecom companies lament about — there are more number of missed calls than actual calls being made!

M. R. SUBRAMANI

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