Cogito, ergo sum

...A question posed by my cousin who's one week shy of 11 years surprised me. She was referring to my slick looking new phone that I was forced to buy a couple of months ago. I had to downgrade from a Ericsson W550i to a Fly V60. One of the reasons is that camera phones are prohibited in our office. Although I had managed to sneak my phone in without any problem over the last year or so, I got tired of being on the look out for people who could create problems whenever I attended a call. I wanted to be able to walk though the security point without putting the conversation on hold to hide my phone. More importantly my w550i conked off temporarily and I was handicapped. So I had to get a cheap alternative. On an impulse bought a Fly mobile.

The actual conversation with the kid went something like this.

With all the answers in negative her eyeballs were about to pop out with surprise. With a big sigh, she was looking at me, almost as if ashamed that her brother had a basic level phone. I don't mean to sound so dramatic, but it was a comical scene. Here she was, still having milk teeth, talking of WAP and bluetooth. She found it very hard to digest the fact that a mobile phone can be just a phone and nothing else! I gave her some time to think over the idea but it didn't work out the way I had expected. Later I convinced her that had it not been for the villains at office who banned camera mobiles I would have bought a high fundoo phone...something like a functional crossbreed of an iPhone and N96 with the genes of a Ericsson W950i and the looks of a Motorazor. That seemed to revive her faith in me.

It got me thinking about the role a mobile phone plays in our lives. Most of the people from my generation have lived almost half of our lives without telephones and major part without mobile phones. Mobiles have added a great deal of convenience in our lives, but on the flip side we have been enslaved by it. Hard to realise it until you accidentally forget your phone at home.

I realised this when my phone got conked. I didn't have access to my numbers, business contacts, reminders, b'day-anniversary alerts, mail ids, account numbers, PIN and the list is almost endless. Everything went for a toss. I couldn't even wake up on time. I was so used to the phone waking me up with a peppy tune that when I started using the traditional alarm clock, I got irritated to a point where I have actually thrown away the clock!

Now even though my 550i is ready, I'm using Fly. No headaches - no maintenance. I've dropped my 550i thrice since I bought it 3 years ago and everytime it hurt me at various levels. Now I don't care. If this one drops... Big deal. I'm using a phone as a phone only. For the rest of the functions that I used to utilise my phone for, I have separate gizmos. I know it's not a one package solution and a bit inconvenient. But this way if one thing fails the rest is still working. With so many add-ons onto a mobile, it's identity as a phone is lost. For e.g. it is prudent to call some phones as a mp3 player with a phone instead of the other way round.
All of this gyaan might work against me some time later, considering that I'm a gizmo-freak myself. But as of now I've renounced myself of all complicated technical stuff. Let's see how long I can stick on to the mobile phone as a phone only approach.

On a different note, mobiles have become an indispensable part of our lives. Other than being a communication device, it's also a fashion statement. Phones have invaded way too much into our personal lives as well. I've seen relationships and friendships being started and developed exclusively on calls and sms. I've used a mobile phone for cheating once. It was some written test for an interview. A friend and I decided to help each other out. Apparently I am weak in English and good with maths and she was the opposite. So two brains together, we had come out with perfect scores.

Anyway. So what's ur phone like?