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**** Goanet Classifieds ****
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Enescil, a Brazilian engineering firm requires Engineers, Architects
and Draftsmen, proficient in AutoCAD, for their new office in Goa
Those interested can email [email protected] by 15 November 2011
Selected candidates will be sent to Brazil for 2 months training
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Our Telephone Exchange
Couple of days back when I called my daughter in Goa, my call got connected to
another number at another place, creating a lot for confusion and luckily
humour too, later when I tried again, it got connected to yet another number
unfortunately the name of the lady who picked up the phone, happened to be
Antonete, the same as my late mother and it left me wondering as to how on
earth could a call to my daughter in Goa, get connected to my mother in haven
but on second thoughts anything is possible in Goa, isn't it ?
This is not the first time this has happened to me. Some years ago my cousin
from Australia was in Goa and was suppose to visit my place, so accordingly at
that particular time I called, thinking I would get to talk to him as well, to
my surprise my call got hooked to his call while he was talking to a lady
relative of his from my residence phone and I could hear his part of the
conversation very clearly and did not realize there was someone else connected,
I recognized his voice so I cut off my call. After a while I called again and
the same thing happened.
May be a year later a call to my wife mysteriously got me the DGP of Goa on the
line, after a bit of explaining from me, he laughed and said that it was not
the first time that it has happened and I politely excused myself. Another time
I got another wrong connection and when I asked who it was, I received a very
nasty reply "are you drunk so early in the morning not to remember who you are
calling ?" and bang, slammed the phone. It was embarrassing.
Cross connections and wrong connections are common, though I must say that it
is not as bad as it use to be, our traffic in electron transmission and air
waves has certainly increased in volume manifold over. Thanks to the
advancement in science and technology almost everything is now possible at a
click of a mere button, mobile or mouse and man's ingenuity just keeps getting
better in some ways and still worse in other ways.
In Goa things have certainly improved but have not kept pace with times and we
still lag far behind in a number of ways and our telephone exchange is one of
them, we certainly have the resources to improve but it is the same old case of
"spirit is willing but the body needs fuel or a kick up the back side". If one
takes a look at the state of our telephone and electricity cables, it's
appalling, thick cobwebs all over, sometimes tangled, sometimes broken and
dangling from posts and sometimes poles leaning on each other (telephone and
electricity) which is certainly a cause of grave concern and worry.
The state of the sub-stations (exchanges) in rural areas is even worse, we have
one in Kanaguinim. In our area most of the time the land lines are not working
and we are left at the mercy of the air waves, which when tried we mostly
expect the message "outside coverage area" because of the mountainous
topography around. Even though the exchange is mostly dysfunctional, the two
men kept for the upkeep are rarely found around, so it takes anything between a
week to ten days, to sort out our telephone problems and even then after a few
days we are stuck by the same or a different problem. During the rains it's
worse and we are told that water is the cause of the line's malfunctioning but
I keep on asking why do we have the same problems in summer when the rains are
not around ? In short our telephone line is as erratic as our electricity and
it would be an extremely difficult task to identify which one is worse.
Telephone is a very important accessory in our lives, it does help us in a lot
of ways and today we keep becoming more and more dependant on it, those people
who have the luxury of undisturbed air waves may not be affected by a
problematic landline but we, the people leaving in areas that are not very
conducive to air waves, it could be "THE" thing or difference between life and
death.
So I would like to remind the authorities that providing the people with an
infrastructural facility is not the end of the project but infact it's just the
beginning of it, because it is the duty of the authorities to take utmost care
and maintain the facility that they have provided the people, so that it
becomes a help to us in our daily lives and not a hindrance at the time of
emergency, where a valuable life may depend on it.
Freddy Agnelo Fernandes
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