No sound from me

I woke up with the feeling that someone was hitting me, and gosh, I was right. The day help of the family I am with was hitting me with a duster. What a way to begin the day! The matriarch might have chided her that she is not doing her job well, and she found a way to get her frustration out. Most days, she avoids me.

I felt let down, which is what I feel most days now, and think nostalgically of the long gone days.

There was a time when I was placed in the prime position in the living room. So that when guests came in, they would first see me, and nod their head reverently but surreptitiously, and acknowledge the social status of the family.

I was cuddled and cradled affectionately. I was shared amongst the family and their neighbours. I wore different colors, and in keeping with the trends, I became slimmer and slimmer over the years. I had my own status and importance.

One sound from me, and the family members, young or old,  would come rushing. The youngers would outpace the older ones,  but the olders would snatch me from them when at last they would reach me. In order to avoid this friction, the youngsters started placing dibs on who would pick me up, which usually got messy, so the olders would create a charter on who got to pick me up when. That did not help either, as I was so cherished, that I was usually picked up by the one who got to me the fastest.

Members of the family would love talking to me. They would spend hours and hours talking. I was the bond, the glue, joining family and friends, near and beyond, sometimes across the seven seas. Without me, life was unthinkable. With me, friends and families, felt safe to move out of their homes, and felt that the connection will still be there.  

Most of the time, I was the bearer of  good and prosperous news when the family, specially the younger ones would jump up in joy and scream and shriek, much to my amusement. But sometimes I had to share the sad ones, and the family would huddle near me and sit in sorrow. That broke my heart. At other times, the family members would stay hunched around me, waiting in anticipation for something.  

When I would make no sound, the family would get frantic and move heaven and earth to just get a tiny trill from me. Oh my! The relief which would come on everyone’s face when I did.

I changed over the years too. Sometimes, the prime position in the living room, was not conducive for lovelorn hearts and I was able to move into the private domains of the bedrooms, for those cozy chats through the nights.

I changed and adapted and had highs for so many years.

But now, look at me, relegated to a dusty corner of a room, which no one ventures. Now when I make a sound, I usually startle people. They do pick me up with a confused look but that bond and connection which I brought in, that doesn’t come.

Sadly, I have been replaced … ☹

Do you know who I am? Do you know who replaced me? Do you know whether I would ever get my hey days back? Why don’t you type in the “Comments” section and let me know.