Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Funda cellphone ka...

Two contrasting stories on cellphone/mobile usage caught my eyes today. Both stories were featured in BBC: "Cancer doubts remains over mobiles" and "India state bans mobiles in class". I am not sure if mobile causes any harmful effects to brain or causes cancer but as the studies shows, it doesn't atleast have any short-term side-effects except for annoyance to the rest of the world. I don't have problem with people talking on their mobiles but am not interested in knowing what one saas thinks of her bahu or vice-versa or a boyfriend faking lovey dovey feelings for his girlfriend in full public view or as some mms scandals have shown...oh well haven't they shown enough.

In India, according to some reports and as BBC article shows, cellphone has become one huge fashion accessory, with an average Indian changing their cellphones every 18 months compared to 36 months for a North American user. It is also interesting to see the different ways in which cellphones are being used around the world. Japanese use it to buy their groceries and hang their little toys on the cellphone for fashion, Indian like playing the latest Himesh number as their ringtones, Americans like slim sized phones and Canadians...err...well they just like to carry a mobile if they can afford the bills since we get charged even for incoming calls/smses.


Anyways, all the above fundas now don't apply to me. Why? Oh well, coz I have given up my cellphone for good-ol-landlines. I have been using cellphone for past 8 years and the question is why to leave now and how is the life without a cellphone. To answer the first question, well me and my brother had 2 cellphones when we were away and that was good way to keep in touch and all. After moving here, we thought we will give up one cell and keep one landline but when our last two bills came for $400 (Rs. 16000), it was time to end this cellphone crap and so we both gave our cellphones and took one landline.

Now, how is life without cellphone? Hmmm...not bad actually. Now whenever we take a call at home we know that we don't have to count the minutes on our hand or risk being screwed by the cellphone company like we were before. Also, because we both are out of house most of the day as I come home at 10:00pm and my brother in the evening, cellphone was a waste since we are not allowed to use cellphone at work/school. Although, there are some things that we miss about cellphones, one of them being sending smses but we already have so many different ways to contact people like, orkut, facebook, email, phonecall etc. that we don't miss it that bad. Although, I miss sending smses to few friends from work (you know who) :D Another thing that can be a concern is that since I come late at night from the downtown area and take subway, it is usually good to have a cellphone in emergency situations but the subway system have got free emergency phones, if needed, and so that's not a big deal either. Apart from that, life without cellphone is pretty good.

I am not saying that everyone should give up cellphone because in most cases it has become a necessity esp. when you need to be connected for your work. It is also a good revolution for India because it cuts-off the bribe-seeking middle-men who took 10 years to give us our first land-line and that too with some chai-paani. Also, in a large country like India, where call charges can be dropped to pennies coz of huge number of users, having a cellphone makes more sense then having a landline.

Anyways, my favorite cellphone story is the one based in India 10 years ago . It was the year 1997 (or1998) and cellphones had recently made entry into the Indian market. An average cellphone costed about Rs 50,000+40,000 (insurance). I was at my mechanic, getting my scooter fixed. A huge Punjabi guy comes in his Bajaj Chetak, talks to mechanic about his scooter problem and looks at me standing there to get my scooter fixed. Suddenly out of the blue, he takes out his new cellphone (size of a shoe-box, no less), looks at it in an admiring way like a lover looks at his first love, presses some buttons, smiles and keeps the cellphone in his pocket. And I say in my heart, "Damn, these Delhi people got one more thing to show-off". Little did I knew...

17 Comments:

Blogger hope said...

uiiiii ma... inne lambi post..

*sigh*

padte hai....

11:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ohh i loved it!!! its sooo nice.. n u know, i wud hav given up my cell long ago - but my hostel dusnt allow landlines :p n cell phones are more private na ;)

12:49 AM  
Blogger The Bhandari's said...

I too have seen these latest stories on aaj tak, and am happy that karnataka govt has banned in schools, I'll be more happy if it gets ban in other states as well, I am strictly against kids using cell phones, which is really not required even 0.01 percent, good example is my own sister who went on hunger strike when her cell phone was taken away from her, she has just passed school and using cell for last 2 yrs which is not at all required, and We can see her on phone 18*7 rest of the time she sleeps, study time is 0 hrs. I have seen kids in singapore in bus and schools which are hadly 5 or 6 yr old and are always busy with their cells either messaging or playing games, all the time ear phones plugged in, god knows what help does it do to them but definitly it effects their studies, fingers, eyes, ears and heart....
Cell phone shud be used as a necessity and not a luxry

2:02 AM  
Blogger hope said...

aah! pad li.. ji janab aapne bilkul sahi farmaya.. who knws better than us whose bill comes in bet 7-8k :(

vaise shoe-box size kuch hi ho gaya .. nahi? :P may be infant's size box hoga :D

oh yes! hum dilli vale love to maro style hehehe!

2:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well well I think your post is very amusing too but at same time I don't really agree at giving up on cell phones! Surely I also don't agree at school/colleges banning use of cell phones. I think parents/teachers are over reacting, same way as they did when TV came.. or email or internet .. or chat ...
* youngsters will find best way to communicate... u stop cell phone.. it will be internet.. landline .. whatever.. so problem is NOT cell phone.. its their age! you need to educate them about cell phone etiquettes, they are quick learners and with enough threat of cell phone being confisticated for wrong use/time, they'd can be good user of mobiles
* cell phones I think are "needed" in colleges maybe not in school; to get in touch with the child; the kind flexibility and peace of mind it can give working parents is tremendous
* In india its the easiest and cheapest mode of communication even to landlines; pre-paid gives instant connectivity STD/ISD whereas in post-paid and landlines one needs deposits, credit checks etc before you get options like that
* In India likely you'd find an STD/ISD booths every few KMs but abroad, when in a job where you could be moving often, makes sense to take a hand phone rather than landline, mostly roaming is free (it was way back in 2004), point is to educate yourself of your call plans and use it to fullest and merge with VoIP etc.

Moonie

9:02 AM  
Blogger Marlee said...

Ur charged for ur calls?! 8-O Oops...Lol. I'd probably die if I didn't have access to any kind of phone for more than 1/2 an hr! My Mobile is probably the most prized possession in my life - its a phone,cam, note book as well as a music player. I loooooooooooooooooooove my Mobile :-D

11:13 AM  
Blogger Reema said...

lol, interesting post! very thought provoking! i dint know u quit using a cell.. :S cell ke bagair dunya kaisi hoti haio?! :p

lol, xcoooze me i caant imagine life without it! here u caant rely on pay phones/pco's.. n i believe its necessary also cuz of the emergency situations, as u mentioned!

however, i do agree.. they've definately become more of a fashion accessory n a way to show off.. im proud to say im not one o those 'savvy techno types', my nokia's simple n i find it good enough!!

11:30 AM  
Blogger Reema said...

btw, $400!!! wow :|

11:31 AM  
Blogger Reema said...

ohh wow, i gave a longer comment again! :D

11:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Managing your money huh? Good...yeah, it's always good to quit one of the habits...I believe in not letting anything get to me...as in addictions can sometimes be real bad. There should be no material that you can't stay without!
~Aindrila

9:23 PM  
Blogger Jyoti said...

Delhi walon pe ek aur daag! pakado es gabbar ko...!

8:48 PM  
Blogger hope said...

arey! bahut ho gaya funda cell phone ka.. ab kuch ande ka funda ho jaye :P

i mean kuch naya.. chatpata.. loll

8:30 PM  
Blogger fursat said...

hope - Ha ha!! Your comments are so natural ...uii ;-)

payal - Achaa bahana hain...he he (just kidding)

Yes, cell are more private and a necessity in country like India esp. for you girls, its a safety net for sure :-)

the bhandari's - Yea, I agree with you. Cellphones are banned everywhere in schools, so why not India. I am sure its distracting students from their studies more than ever as you mentioned.

11:01 PM  
Blogger fursat said...

hope - Wow!! 7-8K, poora mohalla aapka phone use karta hain kya...he he.

Aree yaar, I said shoe-box for dramatic effects na :P

Aap kahan se Dilli waale ho gayee ab???

moonie - I never said "Give up cellphones". I said that trying using it as a necessity without causing noise pollution in already noisy country.

Cellphones is banned in most schools around the world and in my college the cam-phones were banned after some guys took pictures of girls in compromising positions and posted on net. The fact is that TV, Internet, Chat is still not allowed in most schools except for school work.

I agree with rest of your points and as I mentioned that cellphone maybe a necessity in a country like India.

11:07 PM  
Blogger fursat said...

marlee - Yes :'(

You are a cell-maniac :P I now use my cellphone for alarm and as an address-book :|

reema - Cell ke beena duniya noise-pollution-free hoti hain :P

Yea, I agree that cellphone is a necessity in most cases.

Matlab aap style nahin maarte apne cellphone se :P

Yes $400 and love your long comments, so keep on rolling :D

11:11 PM  
Blogger fursat said...

aindrila - Yea, now I can proudly say that I can live without my cell :D

jyoti - Ha ha!! Welcome to my blog!! Aap bhi Dilli-waale ho matlab :D

hope - Kha lo chatpati chat, paros de aapko :P

Aur kuch hukum?? :D

11:14 PM  
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6:00 PM  

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