I started using cell phones, only after I came to the US, and only when I absolutely HAD to get one, while looking for employment towards the end of my post-graduation. Since then, I have always hated missed calls… Especially when people complain about me not calling back… My perspective on missed calls is like this – if a person calls me and leaves a missed-call, I assume it is just for chit-chat a.k.a vetti mokkai…Not that I am working on some cutting edge research for mankind’s upliftment… It’s just that after a few incidents of calling people back after a missed-call, all I got was ‘nothing much dude‘, or ‘summa dhan call panninen‘ or something like that..and thereon, I just conveniently assumed that its ok to call them back later…like muuuuuuuuchhhh later. 
Personally, I make it a point to leave voice messages most of the time, if the person I am calling does not pick up their mobile phone. This is because I think when the person checks his/her messages they know if my call was important or not.
At times, when I am more hyper and chatty than my usual self, I do call back weird-unknown numbers just for the heck of it to discover who called me… you never know if the call you just missed might be from some cool chick who dialed your number by mistake… maybe you can call her, impress her over the phone, and maybe, just may….be, ask her out to a dinner, a movie, whatever… 
Obviously, I haven’t been successful in this attempt so far, otherwise I’d have proudly mentioned it here, or better still written a separate post about it…. just to clarify matters..in fact such random unknown numbers have NEVER – EVER been a girl…. some spanish speaking dude/lady blathering about something, chinese, etc.. where I do not understand even a single word of what they are saying… and I just hold for them to take a breather and say ‘uh…whaat?’ followed by, ‘you probably called the wrong number‘… followed by click..beep-beep-beep….
Or it could be your family calling from India, via net2phone or other similar internet phone providers, which sometimes show up as really weird combinations of numbers like 731-1102 and such. But my dad usually leaves me a brief message indicating whether I need to call back immediately or it was a ‘just-cos‘ call. So no anxiety there..
Even worse than the missed-call, is when some friends call me and leave a voice message like “hey machi…call pannu da”, “hey, call me back”.. DUH!! (I say to myself, “yeah, ok da” and delete the message and call back…like almost never…hehehe) However, when this is followed by 10-15 missed calls within the next 10 minutes, you know someone is being chased by a Big-Foot.. or a human who looks like a Big-Foot….or something like that. catch my point? 
and there are yet other times, when I actually have nothing to say, really… like absolutely nothing… at these times I just try to say ‘uh…onnum illa machi… summa dhan pannen.. mudinja thirumba call pannu’ or something to that effect… translated as ‘nothing much dude… just called to say nothing… so call back later if you care to talk about.. nothing‘.. story of my life, people…really…
Lastly, there are these planned/discussed missed-calls… for instance, you plan to go with friends to a movie or for dinner at a restaurant… each person has to reach the decided spot from a different place… in this situation missed call is a really useful tool, to just convey, the time-of-start… so that maybe depending on approximate travelling time for that person (say, A), person B can plan his departure accordingly… and so on…
Like all thoughts and ideas, this post has a trigger too… I chanced upon an article in The Hindu – Metro Plus Tiruchirapalli – The language of missed calls. Read on…
yes, utterly jobless at work today, enjoying the “paid-day-ON.. yah!
inimey no calls to u; nee ketta keduku unakku msg vera vidanumaa?
///..
… Well, most of the times i call people jsut to say hi and how things r goin on .. but yeah , i think i shud start leaving msgs.. what if they have a similar perspective like urs… BUt i dont care about u!!! so only missed calls.. nd no messages!! as always …………i dont care even if u dont care …………….
NIce write up man!! keep it coming…
TK –
) and thanks! 
dei office le sema vettiya….intha mathiri vetti blog ezhtuhura…inime unaku enna missed call unaku missed kai kuda keadaytahu
good blogg…:)
neo – dai…blog-ey mokkai, adhukku ippidi oru KEVALAMANA puke-worthy comment thevaya da?
The world is ready with answers before you could ask. You just need to look for those:
http://raapi.blogspot.com/2008/02/pick-up-your-phone-for-godsake.html
rc – though, doesn’t seem like an answer..
I’ve had heated discussions on this topic especially when i was in US for 3 months. Periya pachnai aachu between me and my friend.
my take has always been that – if Xget a call, she should
a) either take the call or
b) call back ASAP.
With or without messages.
i find a curt ‘Dei i’ll call u later. bye’
much better than not taking the call.
Atleast thats what i do when i am busy. i SMS folks when i can’t even give that.
I think the caller gets an acknowledgement on both these methods asap.
Idhu panradhuku somberi thanam na then why cell phone?
prabhu – the call-you-later-bye, is totally what I am looking for, unless the person being called is in the middle of a meeting…
you know, some days I have been in meetings all day and then some..appo ellam it is impossible to call back unless, i have voice message… atleast i’ll know i did miss anything that way. adhukku dhan message udardhu important nu feel panren.
but some people that i know dont pick up their call, and just give some stupid excuses – ringer vibrate la irundhudhu, was watching TV or some lame excuse like that, and thats when I get pissed.
You’ve been quite guilty of this not picking up the call habit..so I don’t think you can preach on this topic..:)
subha – in retrospect, the post itself was brought about because I have unfortunately missed some calls in the recent past… but I still stand by what I said…
and hey! freedom of speech machi!