I was in dire need. Hence, I was furiously flipping through the pages of the Guwahati Yellow Pages (2009) and the Northeast Yellow Pages (2009) a few days back in order to get hold of a phone number of the Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium. There were around four to five numbers. Or, so I found. I tried dialing up all the numbers which were clearly printed in the yellow pages but unfortunately none of them actually worked. Either the numbers did not exist in the first place. Or no one answered. Either way, it did not help matters for me.
Next, I tried taking recourse to the Dial-In service (0361-2606060) which has recently come up in the city. Thank god the service itself was actually working; I mean the phone is, at least, ringing, I said to myself. A lady picked up the phone after few rings and asked me to give her two minutes so that she could look for the number and SMS it to me. I was not expecting an SMS for I know how things run in Guwahati. But still I hoped for the best. A few minutes later I got a callback from the Dial-In service. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised. That same lady had called me to say that they didn’t have the current updated number of the Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium. I was at least satisfied about the fact that Dial-In service had responded to my query even though they could not provide me with the number.
Next I tried calling up various people who were dealing with the educational fairs held in Guwahati. But they also could not provide me with the number. I called up all my uncles and aunts in order to get hold of the number. But nothing yielded results. I was really tired looking for just one number which no yellow pages or service could provide me.
Finally, I came back home tired and exhausted. I had a last hope on my father that he might be able to get hold of the stadium’s number. My father too tried calling up his friends and relatives but unfortunately this also didn’t work out. Then I tried looking for the number over the Internet. No website could give me the number.
Some time later I got some calls from the people I had contacted earlier. They gave me some good advice: go to the stadium and collect it from there. It would save me time and effort, they advised. And it worked!
But the question in my mind remains. Why is it so difficult to get hold of a phone number in Guwahati?