The Return of the Diminishing Load

Who says that only hoodlums perpetrate crimes such as highway robbery? Even big telecommunications firms rob their hapless victims, their loyal customers, in broad daylight. Maybe, you may have also been victimized by the diminishing load even if you did not subscribe to any of these unsolicited promotions sent to your mobile number by these firms. I, too, was once a victim of this 'heinous' crime.

Just when I thought this nefarious practice has been put under control with the aftermath of the Senate investigation, the malpractice is starting to creep into the system again. This time, it was my wife and my life plan agent who were victimized by the automatic diminishing load.

You see, the other day when I was about to leave the office, my wife texted me to ask if I would fetch her. While I was replying to her, a text message came in which I ignored first since I was texting back my wife. After sending my message, I read the message that came in and was surprised that it was from my wife. I was thinking she had a follow-up message but it was the same message that I replied to. Thinking that she just mistakenly sent the same message twice, I ignored it.

When another text came in, coming from her again, I thought it was her reply to my message. But when I read the message, it was the same message as the first and second. And another one came and what do you think? You guessed it right! Same message.

I informed her that I received the same message four times to which she said she just texted me once. Of course, I knew she was telling the truth. As I was about to text her back, I got another message from her. Again, what do you think? Now you know. I received the second message twice. I could only nod my head in utter disbelief this was happening again!

Hours after we got home (in fact, wife was already in bed starting to doze off), somebody texted me. Guess who it was? My wife, of course! And guess what was her message? Those who say it was the first message, raise your right hand. Those who say it was the second one, raise your left hand. The righthanders had it. Wait there's more! The same message came in again only after some minutes of interval. Funny, right? Infuriating! I was readying myself that I would still receive the same message before I went to bed, but my wife's service provider was polite enough to stop sending me the same message.

The next morning, when I reached for my cellphone to see the time, there was an unread message. Need I ask you who it came from and what was the message again? Your guess is as good as mine. What a way to start my morning! But since happiness is a choice, I chose to ignore it and went on with my usual routine. When I told my about it, she could not believe it. What could be wrong? What do you think?

Almost the same thing happened to the life plan agent and I do not want to belabor you with another long story. The important point is that the diminishing load modus operandi has been resurrected. Maybe the telcos are taking advantage of the election campaign thinking that nobody would initiate another investigation because the Senate is in recess and the Senators are busy with their political campaign.

Well, I just hope I am wrong because if they are taking advantage of the situation now, they will have to answer for it if not to their clients then to their God, if they have any.