Barring Feature — Call

It wasn’t out of cruelty. His father, Nandan, had entered the early stages of dementia, and the spam calls had become a torment—fraudsters promising lottery winnings, fake banks demanding OTPs, and telemarketers selling immortality in a bottle. Each call left Nandan confused, sometimes in tears. So Arjun barred all incoming numbers except his own, his mother’s, and the family doctor’s. Peace returned.

His mother had stepped out to buy dinner. The doctor was in surgery. And Nandan, alone in his hospital bed, had just pressed the emergency button that routed through his own phone—the one Arjun had locked down so carefully. call barring feature

Arjun stared at his phone screen. Three missed calls. All from the barred number. All silenced by the very wall he had built to protect his father. It wasn’t out of cruelty