Keeping in Touch

At the tender age of 16, John Pollard and I went hitchhiking in Germany and Austria. We had return rail tickets from London to Munich, Youth Hostel cards, sleeping bags and a small tent. 

Phone booths in post offices were operator-connected

Our parents lost us for two weeks, and if there had been an emergency, we would have had to go through the complication of finding one of the limited number of post offices which had a row of cabins to which international calls could be connected. 

Even the shortest call would have been very expensive: probably in the region of £50 in modern terms.

Telegrams were the alternative 24-hour option, facilitating stilted and stunted messages to arrive at the receiving post office in strips of capital letters, which a clerk then pasted onto a standard Royal Mail form.

Telex machine and trained operator

Years later, I was International Sales Director of SodaStream with the task of, building a global business without the benefit of the internet. Hence, no emails, just telex – which had to be keyed in by the designated operator on an oversized keyboard machine, 

not unlike the ones my father had used in 1945, establishing communications between the War Office in London and the front line in France after the Normandy invasion.

But TODAY ! I look around and observe everyone –myself included, of course – in constant communication with the world. I have to stop and ponder the change, the impact and the effect on REAL communication.

I'm sure you remember the indignant uproar when refugees from Syria arrived in Europe, carrying the very latest smart-phones

A modern smart-phone does the work of 35 different devices

We Europeans have always regarded the cell-phone as a luxury item, but it’s not that for the majority of the world’s population. When I first started writing about the telecommunications business, fifteen years ago, communication in Africa was opening up with the roadside deconstructed kiosk. Just a woman, sitting on an upturned beer crate, offering use of her mobile phone by the minute. You gave her the number; she made the connection and passed you the handset. When you had finished your call, she checked the actual cost and added a handling charge. 

Young men love their phones

In a matter of months, telecommunications had transformed how people could keep in touch. Handset costs took a dive, and mobile phone ownership soon became an essential tool in running any kind of micro-business, and in every young person's social life.

Internet Browsing and Email Centre

In India we are now seeing the death of the internet café. Once everywhere, the offices are still there, but they are now run-down and deserted. Everyone is online and they’ve got the whole wide world in their hand.

Mattindia tends to attract seasoned independent travellers, and they all seem to spend a fair amount of time on the internet. I know plenty of people blog, as I do, and like to record and share their impressions and experiences. What I don’t know is how the nature of people’s homeward communications has changed. When I travelled in my student years, my parents kept all my letters and I have them all to this day, packed in a box under my bed. I am too embarrassed to break it open and wallow in my ramblings, afraid I’ll be ashamed of the stuff I wrote about, - and would rather let that slip into the past.

I treasure my the letters I exchanged with my parents when I was in Africa, - but do people write personal letters much any longer? I keep in touch with my children and grandchildren with FaceTime and Skype, and perhaps that’s more important. 

I have only one regret about my communications, and that is that I wish I had penned more hand-written notes of thanks, congratulations or condolence. I know the emotions I experience when the postman delivers an envelope that is hand-addressed in fountain-pen, and I love to share those feelings with others.

So there's another New Year's resolution !