Shift Kiya.. Kiya... No-kia!

I wonder if there are people on this earth who do what they say. I mean, sometimes it's so difficult. Not generally, but for me it's so. I say something, and do something else.

This time it was my phone. I lost my phone to the rain of Dehradun. Well, most probably, as it stopped working later in the night after the day when it caught some rain. And so, I was going to get a new phone.

I have been a music freak for almost 10 yrs, but I still never had a music phone. So this time I decided to get a music phone. And since I got a digicam, I wanted to have a non-camera phone. I searched, and found that Nokia had no such phone. (!!)

Well, I thought of buying a Sony Ericsson and later decided to go with a MotoYuva. I even found one with a friend of my cousin and finally I was happy with my choice of a new Moto.

The day I had to buy phones (my dad also needed one, as he lost his almost a month ago), I took off on my dad's Nova with him as the driver. (I still don't drive a scooter, or any other vehicle for that matter!)

The first shop we selected belonged to 'apna subhash' who is popular in the city for his helping nature. ('Apna' was part of his shop's name when I had bought my first phone from there in 2003) By this time 'apna Subhash' had stopped selling cellphones and was only in the business of advising as far as cells were concerned. My dad asked him who had Nokia and Motorola Agencies in the town and he immediately suggested not to go with a Motorola even though he said Motoyuva wasn't a bad phone.

Next we reached Goyal PCO, our supplier of clothing except shirts, pants and sarees, I mean, from towels to bedsheets and caps to socks, the owner of course being my dad's good friend. He there asked him to come with him to Bilal's, who had almost every model of cellphone that was sold in the town. As we talked to the guy sitting behind the counter of Bilal's, the guy suggested us not to go with a Motorola and rather stick to a Nokia. The reason he gave was that we had gone to him with bhaisahab (the owner of the PCO) and hence he would give us the best advice. He also said that he currently didn't have it and it would take him two days to get a Moto as Motorola wasn't in demand in our town.

This time I finally came down. I was all in mood to get a Moto until then but as I heard I needed to wait for two days for a thing that was un-suggested by a number of people, I decided to get back to a Nokia.

I asked the guy what were the prices of 5200, 6300 and 3110 classic. And soon I decided to go with 3110 classic as 6300 was a bit too high on price and even though I was at a liberty to buy that, I didn't want to put in that much money. Nokia 5200 was de hone and hence I didn't want to buy that. Thus I got a Nokia 3110 Classic, once again a Nokia, after my 2100, 2280, and 2600. In the meantime, I got my father a Nokia 2626 that he lost last month and this time I got him a Nokia 1650, making him the third person who bought the model while going with me.

To other cell makers: I have recommended a number of phones from other companies including Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, and this time I was about to shift to a Moto myself too. But at last, No-kia.

I Don't Pod

I don't generally regret things. Even try not to be materialistic, that is I try not to be sad for things I would want and don't get.

Till date there were two things I felt sad for. Namely, I do not have a digital camera (not even a camera phone yet), and second, that I do not know how play an instrument, not any one of them.

But it seems the list is going to expand this time.

I was yesterday in a train. From Katpadi to Bangalore. Having nobody with me, I got a boring book called 'The world is flat'. Well, the book is not actualy boring, cause had it been boring, I would not be able to cross 500 pages of that. I know I am not that good at reading boring things. That much I know from 'The Hindu' and 'Frontline'.

Anyways, I managed to read the book for 2 hours. 45 pages, that is. 25 in the first hour, and being complacent, 20 in the second. (actually that tells me its a boring book)

Got to confess something too. There were two girls sitting on the seat behind mine, most probably from my own college. But even though I thought of talking to them (just generally, maybe for yet another so-how's-the-college talk), but part for their almost continuous sleep, and part for me being me, I did not.

Well, the essence is that I was in the train, getting bored alone. And then I could see some guys who came into the coach probably at Kuppam station. Most of them were having i pods in their hands and earphones in their ears. (of course!!!) I have always been content with me singing on my own and listening to myself. (I do not bother others in public places generally, though 2 days ago my neighbor Akshay asked me to sing as he was feeling I had reduced my singing time)

But this time I was feeling different. Seeing so many people with i pods, or their counterparts from other companies, like the one I saw with Saurabh 2 days earlier, one from 'i ball', I have started feeling that I also need an i pod.

Not that I have started feeling that my own voice is not that good as before or something, just that I have started feeling that I want to listen more than sing to myself. And since I am reading that boring book, i mean my flat-world, I'm feeling I am left behind people. People who know less than me. (nothing like I have done some research or something, its my self-decided notion that I'm more intelligent than most of the mortals on the earth, and in the opinion of this intelligent mortal, its very very wrong, making it a paradox)

Anyways, I think I'm gonna get an i pod as soon as I get my salary (thanks to Mr Chidambaram, my taxes are gonna get down by almost 25k this yr), even before my camera, that is in queue since 2000, or may be I get an N82. (I loved the phone, has a 5 mega pixel camera embedded and of course i can listen to what i like with that)

Well, for now, i can just keep my fingers crossed, until I get my first salary. Hope to get it soon (and my passport too, that is mandatory for joining)

Amen.

Talk Addiction

Well, you must have heard of the cellphone addiction. Cellphone addiction was something that kept people sticked to their cellphones. Be it games, SMS, or calls. But have you heard of people losing some sense because of cellphones, the way people get high on alcohol and drugs. In case you have not, just observe a bit more.

Yes, there is something in talks. When talking on phone, people do things which they generally don't. Some 4-5 days ago, when I was walking with a friend, I saw a girl with a long leaf of the tree she stood under, breaking the leaf into small pieces, in front of the whole lot of people standing there. I asked my friend what that girl was trying to do. And she told me the girl was talking on phone. That was when I noticed the cellphone sticked pressed between her neck and shoulder. 5 minutes later, the girl had two leaves in her hand, and I could hear a friend of hers shouting in front, "Hey X, I'm gonna tell people you're doing deforestation here!"

Today, when I was coming back from food court after having some plain dosas (3 to be precise) and a coffee, sort of a bit high as I could feel I was sleepy and had taken a coffee and had started feeling lonely (a normal effect of having a strong coffee on me), I saw a girl who looked a bit different, to be true, a bit like the crazy girl from the SASTRA's play in Riviera (maybe because I couldn't see the face of either due to their hair falling on face, the striking similarity). I was myself feeling a bit high but the girl was visibly high as I could see her walking on the fine line made near the footpath. The road was of course empty but the way she was walking made me feel something was wrong with her. And once again I noticed a cellphone in her hand she was talking on, walking unconscious of people watching her, at least me, if nobody else.

In fact, I have found even myself doing things which I would not do otherwise, while on phone. I remember walking on a pipe once (one pretty big in size, horizontal, over a big, clean drain inside my hostel area, and of course, not tough or risky to walk on) which I still look upon and think how I did that.

Actually this is pretty interesting. Although it may not be considered good by many people, in the world today where people do not do things they want to do and where everyone is afraid of bringing outside the child sitting inside themselves, this is something that makes people do they really want to do, things they do not even realize they want to do. And the world outside too watches. Amazed.

Changing colors of mobile telephony

Indian mobile telephony, though it has been there for a longer time of course, came to a real existence with the advent of Reliance India Mobile, A dream of Mukesh Ambani, something that brought the very concept of cellphone for every person, a company that gave away cellphones for as low as 500 bucks, and is still providing people with cellphones at the lowest rates. Though, the name of the company is different now, the owner has changed, and so is the color.
if you remember, there used to be a number of small companies in the early 2000s most of which had started during '96 to '98. Namely, Escotel, BPL, Oasis, Spice, Orange, Essar, Aircel, Hutch, even Airtel. But then times changed and BSNL and then Reliance came up with services, threatening small companies to an extent and thus came the era of M&A, that is, Merger and Acquisitions in the mobile telephony, and the colors really started changing. With this new era, a race started off, prices fell, fundas like airtime came to an end forever, and the number of users grew exponentially. From thousands to lacs and finally, to crores. In this game of M&A, Airtel turned out as the largest company, crossing Reliance and BSNL both. In the race of getting the top position, Airtel bought Oasis (Rajasthan), Aircel bought RPG cellular (Tamilnadu), though it is itself a small entity, and Hutch made a pact with Essar. The light colored Escotel was bought by the relatively new Idea cellular and changed to a beautiful light blue. Whereas the orange Orange and orange Hutch changed into a green background pink when an egyptian partner came in. The Hexacom's Oasis, active in Rajasthan, turned from a light blue (as long as I remember), turned a Vibrant red when Airtel bought it. Last year, the blue circle BPL also changed into Hutch. But one of the major changes was brought by the split between Ambani brothers when the dull looking Blue-green RIM was converted to a Vibrant red-Sky blue logo of ADAG with two big A's in the centre.

And now, the Hutch puppy that followed us for so long, has been given a new shining bright red home by Arun Sarin's Vodafone, changing the ages old logo of India's big brother company, Hutch, to a new Red comma, seen majorly on the England Cricket team's t-shirts till date.
Anyways, happy new home, dear puppy!