PCO

I was born in 80s and grew up in 90s. In this times telephone was considered a luxury. When I say telephone I am referring to the landline. Only of you people would pulses the telephone in 80s. The landlines became widespread in 90s. Despite that public call office also known as PCO had a very prominent role in the life of any person who was alive in 80s and 90s.

This was the era before the mobile phones. If you are outside and you want to contact someone, PCO was the only alternative. Having PCO booth was a successful business. To access the PCO we needed to visit the PCO booth, insert one rupee coin, after that we use to get 1 minute to speak with the person we intend to. If you want to extent that time then we need to continue to put Re 1 coins till the time ends. Every time if the talk time needs to be extended you have to insert a Rs 1 coin before the time would end. Else the call will get disconnected and we need to reconnect the call.

PCO booths would be at various places. They would mostly at any place where there would be a lot of crowd. The places such as railway stations, crowded streets, and market places. Some shopowner would also keep the PCO facility in their shops. This would boost their business as well. If a customer comes to make a phone call there was a high possibility that the customer would buy something from the shop as well. There would also be a demand for Rs 1 coins which the shopkeepers could fulfill. If they did not want to give Rs 1 coins to the customers they could simply tell the customer to buy something from their shop so that they tender the change. Having a PCO in the shop was a massive business making idea.

Generally PCO was would be used only in case of emergency. Like giving an important message to someone. It was really used for long conversations. I remember several times using the PCO to call home and to tell my mother if I was going to be late because of the train delay or assignments at the college. PCOs very useful in that time and age.

Looking back now everything feels as if we were living in a different world all together. It is very difficult to imagine the life without mobile phones. At the same time, being lived in the world without mobile phones, I understand how the life was different yet it was not inconvenient. Mobile phones replaced a lot of tools and instruments. Yet we still have memories of the PCO. Nowadays if we go to any public place we hardly find a PCO. Even if it exist there is a very likely chance that it would be not operational. Mobile phones completely replaced PCOs by early 2000s. Yet I can proudly say that the memory of PCO and the importance of it would never be erased from any millennial's memories. PCS would always have a special place in our hearts and memories.