No Fancy This

By Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: If you thought having a unique mobile phone number makes you a special person, you could be wrong. For, there is a flip side to this uniqueness.
Ask M Ramachandra (name changed on request) the travails of possessing a fancy mobile number. "Sometimes I feel like banging my head to the wall in desperation as some strange people call up and irritate me no end," laments Ramachandra who punched a hole in his pocket for paying Rs 1.5 lakh for a prized mobile number that ends with six 9s. He is now in such a helpless situation that he cannot use the phone nor discard the number having paid such a sum for it.
Presuming that it is being used by a celebrity, people constantly call up Ramachandra's number – sometimes even in the wee hours – and requests him to put them across to the so-called celebrity. "May I speak to Pavan Kalyan. I am his fan calling from Anakapalle," pleads a teenager one morning. Immediately, there could be a call from another remote place seeking to speak to NTR Jr. The next time it could be Mahesh Babu or someone else. "Since my number ends with many 9s, people suspect it to be of some celebrity. I can't blame them but have to curse my luck for having bought such a number," Ramachandra, a businessman rues.
Though he does not exactly possess a fancy number, one particular cell phone user in Vijayawada has a different kind of problem. Never did he suspect when he picked up a number (by not having to pay any premium) that it was once used by a top personality in the state – chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. During his 1500-km padayatra as the then leader of opposition, Rajasekhara Reddy reportedly used a particular mobile phone number that was subsequently discarded. Long after he became the chief minister, the cell company converted this number into a prepaid and promptly sold it to the Vijayawada guy. Many Congress leaders, including some MLAs, believed that the number was still being used by their boss and kept on calling this hapless person. "They never used to trust me when I disclosed my identity. They used to think I was joking and would constantly call me up even at odd hours. With great difficulty, I could get the number cancelled," this artisan said.
Though the film stars have for long stopped using the so-called fancy numbers as it became easier for people to "guess" and access them, the common people who are using such numbers seem to be facing the music nowadays. Numerous missed calls or wrong calls have become a most disturbing factor for those using the fancy numbers.
"It is difficult to screen the calls all the time. With too many fancy numbers on offer, there is little we can do about it," says a senior executive of AirTel. He admitted that complaints do pour in over the growing menace and the only option for such customers was to use the call barring facility.
But it's a rare option that the cell users make use of as most of them are into serious vocations which require them to be accessible. And, discarding the number too is an improbable option for them after shelling out exorbitant sums for acquiring one.