Hello?

An assigned wake-up call came 10 minutes late. It was a pretentious alarm for the sleeper was awake and waiting for the wake-up call, and, as promised, ring-ring the phone did ring.

The telephone is a miraculous invention. If asked to choose between television and Bell's invention, I'd go for the latter - any day. Being able to hear a familiar voice from a different time zone, in real time is the ultimate orgasm of technology. Like the air conditioner, the phone is now labeled necessary appliance although the want supercedes the need for it. This equipment has come a long way, too, since the time of its invention. Smart people, women posing as phonesex-pals, telemarketers, lobbyists, campaigners, etc etc all benefit from this ear and mouth piece. They now come in different shapes, colors, and sizes; they're either corded or cordless; you can choose from a variety of features such as caller-id, three-way conference, call-waiting, voicemail, answering machine, redials, flash, tone or pulse dialing; and if you are the fun-spirited type you'd opt for a Mickey Mouse phone, or a Harley-Davidson phone, or a Planters phone, and - believe it or not - even a Dean Martin phone!

Higher technology has also introduced pc-to-pc, mobile-to-pc, pc-to-mobile, pc-to-phone, phone-to-pc as penny-pinching flipside to the costly long distance phone call. This not only save your hard earned pennies, but the computer or the IM program will also allow the caller to choose options like video conferencing and the like. You will need to have of course, a computer equipped with a mic and headphone and a decent internet connection, i.e. broadband/dsl or cable. Armed with some know-how on basic internet, a measure of avid interest and willingness to venture into the high-tech-but-user-friendly, you are set and ready for cyberphone megacosm.

Gotta go. My phone rings.