Monday, July 23, 2007

Obituary of My Phone

This post is in lament of our phones. The Guy and I were both devoted to our ancient (or so they seem), cheap (relatively – his, at least, mine would qualify in absolute terms) mobile phones. We were determined to not abandon them for (read: too cheap to spend money on) newer versions. Add to that the fact that we used those phones during our courtship period and they therefore have a bit of sentimental value (not to speak of old SMSes) attached.

And then, one day, mine starts shutting itself down for no reason, at various times. Till it shut down completely. It underwent a long stint at the service centre, with little improvement. Never mind, I said. We don’t need three phones. We should do perfectly well with one mobile and one landline. Let’s shut down one connection. Given the fact that I have grown to think of phones as as much of a nuisance as a convenience, it wasn't a painful decision to make.

Then the other phone, worn out with many tumbles, falls, and knocks, has taken to disintegrating itself at the slightest provocation. Picture putting the phone to your ear to answer a call and having a piece of it fall at your feet. We’ve even taken to carrying it around without one of its not-so-vital parts, and telling ourselves that it looks prettier that way.


With my mom paying us a long visit, we could depend on her phone whenever either of ours was too difficult to handle. Then she left. She had used her hometown phone connection all the months she was here, and it worked fine even when in her stopover in Delhi. It was only when she finally reached her hometown that her phone stopped working. It would have been truly ironic if it was due to a problem in the connection, but it turned out to be a problem in the phone. Do phones get contagious diseases?

As for us - sooner rather than later, we’ll have to drag our lazy selves to the store and select a new one. Sigh.