CRAZE FOR FANCY NUMBERS

Two years ago when I bought a new cell phone connection, the salesman offered me the liberty to choose one from some available numbers and told that numbers which looked impressive, like, say, QMQMQMQMQM or OOOYYYYOOO would be available for a premium. “Such numbers may be more useful for Police Station or Hospital Emergency or Ambulance Service”, I told him and suggested that he should give me any number he likes. “I want a phone connection which works; not a fancy number”, I had told him. He then allocated a lacklustre number that fortunately works as efficiently or inefficiently as any other phone in this city. I had crossed that state of mind when such fancy possessions create ripples in the mind. Maybe I had already tasted the thrill of such frills earlier.
A recall of my experience in this area would be interesting.Government now sells attractive registration numbers for vehicles at a premium. For example if you want a number like, say, 1 or 555 for your car, you pay a price for it. In olden days when government ( or Government servants?) was less commercial and more benign, I had bought a Fiat car in Rourkela in early seventies after I sold my first car, an Ambassador. RTO at Rourkela, Mr Behera, was about to retire shortly. The registration code for Rourkela was about to change—from ORO to OSO. It was entirely his goodness that he volunteered and offered me the first number of the new series and my car got registered as OSO 1. I still remember that he looked happier than I was when he handed me the papers.
Shortly thereafter, the car became known widely in the steel city as the car of the Additional District Magistrate. One day a pious and kindly lady, my wife’s close friend, was returning home in our car. On the car approaching a traffic post, it was received with a smart salute from the traffic constable on duty. This incident caused great turbulence in the humorous lady who, on reaching home kept her and our telephone busy for half an hour laughing and explaining to my wife how she felt to be on cloud nine when the smart police man saluted to an ordinary mortal who is only fit for inconvenient inquisition. I wondered if this was the worth of my dear OSO 1!!