This is my first blog ever....
Life has been such an amazing and exciting journey that there is just too much to talk about and write about so I had no clue where to start blogging. The answer was provided by one of my best friends – Awmus who said I should blog about my peculiar relationships with mobile phones.
The contents below are pretty bizarre but every detail mentioned here is 100% true.
To give you an idea of the story to follow I have lost four mobile phones in a span of six months.
Two of them were stolen in quite a bizarre manner – I am losing track of what happened to the other two but should remember in a few minutes
The first mobile I had was a Nokia 3310, the most basic and popular model since quite sometime.
Now, I don't claim to be very careful about my belongings but apart from the odd scratches it was pretty well maintained and safe (I know people whose mobile have been treated with alcohol, coffee and other weird stuff)
I was in Jayanagar, Bangalore and walking out of a net café at around 10 pm. I was chatting with my friend in the US and he said he would call me and so he did.
As I walked out I just felt somebody grab the phone from me and the first reaction was that it was some friend of mine pulling a trick on me
Now on why on earth would I think like that I don't know but that was my first reaction
It took me a while to realize it was flicked and then I was too shocked and dumbfounded to react.
When I came into my senses it was too late for me to do anything…in the meanwhile my dear friend in US was really upset that I cut the call so abruptly and never picked up the phone again – does Murphy have a law for this situation?
Those were really unlucky days for me – I was just going through "a series of unfortunate events" and I went back home looked at myself in the mirror and said "Surely, life can't get unluckier than this – my luck can only get better from tomorrow"
And it was so till a few months later when I lost my phone again - this time I left it at a restaurant and just never found it again
Well I was clearly being careless here and promised myself I would be more careful in the future
I was till a few months later I lost it again as I was getting down from an auto rickshaw late in the night. The mobile just slipped out of my pocket and I was a split second later than the driver to spot it. The driver sped away without even taking change from me – he realized the mobile is valuable and I chased him through a short cut but in vain.
Human beings have become so cynical and selfish of late that they don't help a person in trouble in broad day light so it was unreasonable for me to expect any help close to mid night!
This time I upgraded to a slightly more expensive model to ensure I am very careful about it.
And I indeed was – I set some ground rule for myself like never taking it out of my pocket, not speaking while on the road
Many months later when the demons of the past appeared to have been rested I got a call from my friend on a Saturday evening.
Now I was in Koramangala – a residential, crowded locality in Bangalore and apparently safe place so I picked up and started walking toward my home
There was an action replay of the previous snatching of my mobile phone. I ran and chased the tow guys on a bike and shouted for help – people were just watching the drama.
There was a constable on the road, who instead of grabbing the thieves was taking my interview ("Sir, how long have been living in Bangalore, Sir what is your da5te of birth….)
So here I am today – 4 mobile phones snatched away from me by a combination of fate, greed, carelessness, public apathy and an inefficient system to tackle any sort of crime
Being a die-hard optimist I have upgraded to a more expensive phone in the hope that God will give me a break and crooks will find somebody else to flick from!
Of course I have been learning from the mistakes – I am always on the hands free these days and though I think it looks and feels weird there is no way I am taking out my mobile phone when I am outdoors!
And yeah I have to thank Anup for his brilliant suggestion of buying a bulky, big phone so I am constantly aware it is there in my pocket. If I complete a year without losing the phone all the folks who have given similar bright thoughts deserve a treat from me!
What do I make of all this?
Too many things, for I have this knack of associating something profound and philosophical to each and every small incident in my life
The questions in my mind are
How do the thieves sense out their preys? How do hey know that I 'm probably someone who can be actually taken for a ride? You know what I mean right? How do they manage to stalk me and grab my phone every time (not that I wish it happens to someone else)?
Is it what they call Karma? My boss has misplaced it so many times but every time some good Samaritan calls up and returns the phone to him?
Why have we as a society so not concerned about what is happening to the people around us? There were so many people on the road that day with bikes who could have so easily chased the thieves. Mine is a very petty theft but I can't help thinking about people who watched a woman being raped in broad daylight in a train in Mumbai? I cant help feel angered toward the people who were watching and doing nothing when a fellow Infosys employee had an accident and was bleeding and dying on the road – by the time we took him to the hospital he was dead
Why do we put up with so much injustice of all forms and not protest?
I am sure we all face very disturbing events quite often in our lives but don’t take any action
I am not the best person to answer that since I have become like everybody else – accepting it all as a part of life…
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4 comments:
the one who stole your phone did not have the luxury of philosophizing over the incident.
Having said that, there is no doubt that the apathy of people in both the rape and accident cases that you wrote about, were absolutely disgusting. as deplorable as the crime of rape itself. and when these people dont bother about rape victims and dying people, it is only fair to not expect them to help catch your thief.
There is no single answer or solution to the questions you have posed. Only thing that I am sure about is that human beings are as a species one bad and selfish lot.
Socrates ,I think, said that if people are taught the difference b/w good and bad, then they will do good. While the whole assumption has been proved wrong time and again, you will realize that the "if" itself has not been answered till date. And what about the premise that people are required to be taught about good and bad. We are certainly not born with that knowledge, the way we are born with the other basic feelings and senses.
and while some of us grapple with questions of increasing profundity the situation gets worse. The road ahead is dark and there is no room for weak emotions as hope.
Well I do not think the world is such a bad place after all - I have always been a die hard optmist and wil continue to remain so.
When nothing is going right for an individual / society and the system is ineffective there is one attribute that is compulsory for us to have a better tomorrow and that is "hope"
May be I should write something on hope since it is a very large topic in itself
Hello. How are you. I totally agree. Yours is sadder than mine :-) Losing 4 cell phones ! I am proud that u are alive. I wud have had a heart attack by then :-)
Well my experience on Wednesday, April 25, 2007, ( look up my blog / infy BB ) leaves me shaken too and angry that we are a society who has to deal with all these crappy people on a daily basis.
Just a follow up note: I had been using the same mobile for 1.5 years or so. Just when I was priding myself on that, I dropped water on it one day. After many futile attempts and expenses on repairing it I gavce up and exchanged it for a new one. Let's see how long this lasts. fingers crossed :)
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