A Little more junk!

Last week our marketing professor claimed that he never uses a cell phone. This plain fact in fact made many of my classmates look bewildered but to me it just led to the dawning of the realization that my own humble self has been disconnected from the mobile world since last week or two. And to be honest I have been really enjoying my stint away from a device which has made the humans slave to the device which claims it to be the medium of quickest access. But stop and look back, does a medium like Internet or cell phone really serve a worthwhile medium for networking? Does a forward message both by a cell phone or Internet emails really makes you jump with excitement and eager as a yesteryear's medium of letter did.

No wonder it would seem implausible in the present context to imagine a world without cell phones. But a few years ago such a world really existed. And I consider myself really lucky as well as unlucky to have witnessed the advent of cell phones. Back when I was in first year, I am reminded of one of my immediate senior flaunting his Nokia 3310 in front of a bunch of damsels, and acting nonchalant at the same time as if to give an impression to the onlookers that he was actually born with a cell phone in his right hand while his left hand clung to his mother’s umbilical cord. In fact flaunting a cell phone in those days could be compared to my grandpa flaunting a Lambretta to the next door jealous neighbour. Probably if we narrated our grand kids how owning a cell phone was a status cult in 2001 they would probably laugh hysterically puzzled at the lameness of such a proposition.

Coming back to where I started not having the cell phone reminds me of the good old days when people in hostel used to rush to the Public announcement system when they received a call from their family. I remember vividly how we used to queue in the STD booths like a ritual everyday. Most of the gossips floated in college used to emanate from those long queues. Probably back then in XLRI, it would have been the places where PMIR or OB meetings would have taken place. Whatever time which remained was used to hurl innocuous obscenities at those "mashooqs" who used to make long calls to their beloveds and occupy the booth for long hours. The female lovers( Sorry for using a very coarse adjective/noun like that but the next best thing which comes to my mind is hedonistic lovers or amorous lovers) after coming out of the closed enclosures making the calls would give sheepish glances at people who had been waiting for her tryst with love to end. The mashooqs on the other hand would have their chest swollen with pride that they had gone against the “jamana” and had done something worthy of love for his beloved.

Most of their conversations would sound something like this

“Bolo na”

( We would say to ourselves “Abbey jaldi jaldi bolna aunty ME 110 ke drawings karna hai , jaldi jaldi kata do uncle ko”)

“Kya bolu” after a very long gap, excruciating for both the lover and the people in the queue

“Kuch Bhi bolo”

( To this my devilish mind would impulsively flash the word in my minds white board clearly , “ Kuch bhi bolne bola hai to bol do tu C...... hai ”

“Tumhari awaaz kitni meethi hai “ ( Bloody lier !!!)

“Bolo na I love you”( Yuck how can these people be so lame )

“Nahi !!Baba koi sun lega “( As if she was princess Diana and the paparazzi crazy media had been ready to eves drop on her)

“Koi nahi sunega “ ( How did he know, was he using video conferencing !)

“Papa sun lenge , mamma bhi sun legi!!”. (Grr the people in the queue would grunt Agar papa mummy poorani baatein sun chuke hai to isko sunane me kya dikkat hai !)



And thus would continue their illogical conversation making our parents wait on the other line , puzzled what their wards had for dinner.

But if you look back now, picturing those phony conversations is so much more romantic then the conversations which today’s lover do with their cell phones huddled in unknown corners. And actually life would not have been so bad if things dint change the way they changed, or life had just remained like that!