CELLING OUR SOULS

1. All the seats of the coach are occupied, yet one has a curious sensation of being all alone in the crowd of humanity traveling in the metro, apart from a bored kid. His insistent tugging at mom’s sleeve earns him a sharp,”be quite, cant you see” The child sulks.” You’ve seen the movie?!!” the woman squeals into the handset.” You didn’t tell me you too were watching the movie today!” Much to ones chagrin, she goes on to disclose and dissect the ending of the movie one had been looking forward to watching that very day. Looking around, one finds almost everyone else similarly engaged- chatting,SMSing,”m in mtro,c u in 3 min.” A few years ago it would have been difficult to imagine a family that was physically together but otherwise lost in their own worlds. The other day one saw a family at Peiping’s actually talking to each other and not tapping into their cells, one nearly wept with joy.


2. While cell companies gloat over their billionth handset sale and India earns the dubious distinction of being the fastest growing market, the cell phone is becoming a public nuisance No 1. You can get to know the intricate details of apna Jassi clinching his business deal in Caneda, the antics of shameless Punita next door and the stitch by stitch details of auntyji’s operation. There is no telling where you can be assaulted with these- cafes, roads or theatres- no place is safe.

3. Cells have been a boon to our motor mouths, as every second person has something important to convey every other minute to every other contact in his list. If that’s not enough there are a zillion SMS jokes to forward, SMS contests and votes to take care of, pictures to be clicked and sent. Soon enough another cell company launches yet another new cell with loads of new features. There were so many buttons on a friend’s latest acquisition that she had trouble locating the CALL button to instruct her sabziwala to deliver fresh lemons.

4. To give the devil its due, this important improvement upon Bell’s invention gives us instant connectivity that can be our lifeline at times. It might be interesting, however, to find out how much of it is actually relevant and how much of it pure time pass.