CELL SHOCK

Everybody loves his/her cellphone. It has become an integral part of urbane (and mundane) life that makes it quite inextricable in sensible thinking. I too loved my cellphone. It wasn’t a fancy Blackberry or NSeries but still it was dear to me. We literally slept together, I on the pillow and it beneath it. All was going fairy tale well until this morning at around 4, when out of sudden it wasn’t there anymore. It got lost. Or stolen. Or maybe lost and then probably stolen. Anyway I was the crying baby on either side of the argument. For the record, this is my third mobile which I successfully lost in the last four years. So that validates my absent-mindedness and my declining faith in humanity!

The first thing you feel after losing your mobile is utter desperation, a kind of vacuum. This feeling has nothing to do with your mistake of being so careless. It is very nascent in its purest form. You start reminiscing who was the last person you called. From whom did you got your last SMS. How will you get all the contact numbers back. By the way, the last SMS I received was from my dear friend Tanmay who informed about Rooney’s 55th second goal against Wigan. I was thrilled like anything for Man U topping Liverpool soon, unaware of getting my mobile vanished for good just an hour or two later.

Cellphones to most of us is a link to outside world. It connects us exponentially to people irrespective of the impending distance in between. It is a benevolent invention in spite of constant scientific threats availing it as radiating toxics into our brain (through ear!) and even low sperm count (due to closeness!). Besides, people don’t live with nothing to dare anymore. All are dangling on the edge of danger and who cares about invisible radiation when there are so many visible and imminent vices staring us right in the eye. Radiations are like cellphone stealers, I must add. Both can’t be seen.

Coming back to anguish and self-pity, after realizing this vacuum, there flashes the torch of practical bereavement. And foremost of it is the money put behind the gadget, the balance in it, the numbers, birth dates of friends, notes and gods-know-what. You start cursing yourself for being so birdy and also for not noting down the numbers in a diary or something. Balance is not a major issue in most cases because we all know the stealer is not stupid enough to make a call that will come back to him and nab him. Mostly, it’s a safety measure practiced by ‘expert stealers’. So your balance is assured but what about everything else. You have developed a connection that is so strong and unique with this petite inorganic device. There is very few non-living creatures with whom you might be able to develop such a bond viz. iPod. But then again, the list is too small to allow competition. How many electronics gadgets do you sling along with your wherever you go? Very few, in fact very, very few. And luckily, mobile is one of them.

It not only transcends words in both verbal and textual form but also keeps it intact and affirmed in its record, thus building the lost human touch carved in by time and distance. You won’t take your computer along with you to the market or even laptops are pretty much elite in this case. Mobile with its granular size and indispensable necessity can squeeze in, anywhere, anytime. India is by the way one of the largest cell using nation in the world and no surprise, huge cell phone companies are using national sentiments in advocating their products. People are generally emotional. They talk, argue, gossip, chat but in the end, words fill up something that was missing. Mobile does that job today. Earlier telephones were employed for vis-à-vis but still telephone wasn’t ubiquitous, at least not in a developing country for sure. Cellphone is not a luxury like telephones used to be. It’s like an everyday necessity now, standing on the same scale of usage to a doctor and a temple priest as well.

After weeks of advertising how good a movie SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is, I’m getting back in business with cellphone spiel! However, the funniest part of all this tragedy was the look on my face when I realized my cell wasn’t in my pocket. You should ask another dear friend Tushar who witnessed this wretched hilarity. It takes courage to overcome errors. You need to be careful so that moments don’t catch you unawares. Losing a mobile phone is one thing and losing it repeatedly is another. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, then you lose the right to err. I haven’t lost my right yet, though!

After all, it was just a mobile, right. Whatever the nostalgic story be behind its success and fame, it’s still just a plastic plated, rubber padded, radiation emitting equipment that could be replaced anyhow. There are much more important things out there that could cast a horror in your life if you lost them, for say, your mind, your touch of reality, your sense of knowing your friends and family. That would be truly terrible. I’ve watched this splendid movie Away from Her and I can say it must be something else. As for me, I’ve got myself a Rs.500 ugly looking third-hand mobile. It reminds me of my penitence to be more attentive about stuffs around. My dad pasted me an unforgettable quote on hearing my predicament, “If you keep on losing things like this, I wonder, whether you’ll remember not to lose yourself someday.”