Caller Tune

I have always disliked the caller tunes and I never prefer to have one for my mobile phone.

• Because the person being called likes the song the caller has to hear it. Ridiculous. The person who likes the song doesn’t listen to it but some other people have to listen to it. Doesn’t serve the purpose. A person pays Rs. 25 per month for others to listen to a song. (Don’t get the logic behind this).
• The song can actually act as detrimental if we are to believe that music affects a person’s thoughts and his mood is affected by music. A person who is cheerful and wants to tell the good news to a person who has put up a sad caller tune might become less cheerful while telling the news. Even bad is the opposite situation. When a bad news is to be communicated and rock music is played as a caller tune, it irritates the caller.
• Some time is wasted on commenting about the song which actually lengthens the call time and consequently we end up paying more to the telecom service provider.

An interesting situation occurred in the Ashok Leyland office.

I have been assigned the Strategic Sourcing Department there. The department comprises members who do purchasing jobs along with scheduling, costing, EOQ and other sourcing and purchasing functions. Here, there are numerous calls made to suppliers for quick and timely supply of the required materials. The purchase function is quite important here because the company works with low levels of inventory and so for the assembly line in their factories to function properly and not halt, the purchase section has to be always on its toes and get the materials as and when required. So, there is a lot of shouting and screaming, pleading over the phone that takes place in order to get materials. For suppliers where Ashok Leyland has a higher bargaining power, supplier is shouted at and made to supply the material at a short notice and when the supplier is big and has a higher bargaining power, the purchase managers request and plead over the phone for faster delivery. This is quite a common scene in most of the purchasing departments. (So much for background)
There is a man in his late 40’s quite frustrated with his job who walks into the cabin where I sit (or pass time playing games and reading books) everyday to make phone calls using a phone in the room. (Don’t know why he calls from the room rather than his desk). One day, he was quite angry at suppliers because a part required on Monday wasn’t shipped till Thursday and a delay of one more day in shipping would make it difficult to Leyland. So, he decided to call up the supplier. Very angry with the suppliers, he was sure going to blast the person who was going to attend his call. Generally, the man calls keeping his phone on loudspeaker mode. (Don’t yet the reason for this behavior). So, I could listen to him calling. As soon as he dialed the number, a caller tune started. The caller tune was not just a song of a movie or a pop album. The caller tune was a religious one - May be a Tamil Aarti or something. The caller knew the song and he started humming it. After hearing the song, the person appeared to be quite calm (compared to what he was before). Because of the song now the person told he supplier in plain words that he wanted the part asap– No bad words used nor there was any shouting. The caller tune changed the whole course of action. It made things go differently. The whole conversation was steered from being a raucous to being a dignified by a caller tune. Such is the power of a caller tune. The reverse may also happen and a conversation could turn from calm to a rowdy one because of the caller tune. Thus, it is better to not have a caller tune.