Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A Fasting Telephone Operator

It was a fasting month, when Muslims didn't eat, drink, and other prohibitions from dawns to dusks  for the whole month. Muslims had pre-dawn meal before the decided time called imsak, which began before 5 a.m in Indonesia. Generally, Muslims had some sleep after imsak and before going to office.
At 5:30 a.m, I called a telephone operator to report my complain about the internet service. I dialed the popular numbers for help. I had to wait for the reply. When there was an idea to cancel the complain, the operator replied and greeted me. It seemed that he just fell asleep.
He guided me to do some instructions. "Please open the browser. Type the IP address. Type user name and password. Click quick start. Click next.", he continued to guide me until the last step. I had to wait for some time to restart the configuration. He and I didn't say anything. Silent. I was waiting until the system ready. When it was ready, I found my internet connection still disconnected.
I wanted to tell him the problem. But I heard he was breathing like someone sleeping. I was curious whether he was falling asleep. I was waiting. I kept silent. After a few minutes waiting, it was no respond. I didn't hear his closing sentences, "Thank you for calling. We're sorry for the inconvenient services. We'd like to fix it during 3 time 24 hours. Please don't give any tips to the repairman who come to your house." What I was listening was his breathing instead of the last statements.
I knew the operator must be very sleepy after having pre-dawn meal. I was sure he was fasting and so was I. I hung up the phone slowly in order it would not wake him up.
After that I went to office. I forgot I had called the telephone operator. Then, there was a call from home. A technician was at home fixing the internet connection.

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