Illustration by Radia Durrani
There is a tone that many of us experienced growing up. A wave of white noise familiar to those who have lived through the dial-up internet era. We remember hearing it when trying to go online using internet cards. And we also remember hearing it if we accidentally picked up the landline phone while someone else at home was online — this would usually result in the internet getting disconnected and was, often, followed by some yelling.
If we go back further, even having a home landline was a rarity. At a press conference during the early 2000s, Former Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh narrated an incident that took place at a wedding ceremony he was attending. He recalled that, at the wedding, there was suddenly some commotion and the family started congratulating one another. Sheikh assumed that the