MY FIRST DATE WITH A MOBILE

Inevitable relationships which I was hell bend to stay away from despite — not only the advice from near n dear ones but also nagging from not so well wishers. Yes finally I bought a mobile pre paid one.

As in any relationship that shapes n stabelises, this too had its own teething problems — so did it. For certain reasons, may be less due lack of time that I had at my disposal, it was a spontaneous decision made as I entered “Khandawa” to board the south bound train — Had reached 1hr before scheduled arr of train n a sleepy market was just gearing up for the days hustle – bustle. Some thing like a Love at first sight, I saw a gleaming sign board of AIRTEL+MOTOROLA @1499/- with 1500/- talk time free. A Ganpati offer which; I prevented myself from getting lured in to few days back at Pune. May be succeeded coz there the priorities have been some serious business to do (No I haven’t hanged the uniform yet) n a family gathering 4 dear Bonn’s wedding for which Ranu n Rahul alone had braved a drive from Mhow to Pune n I earned wrath of senior team to plan it that way.

Any way this time I couldn’t and ended up owning one a Motorola C 117 with a convenience of speaking home n home folks getting in touch (on u r nerves?) whatever u call it. It kept me amused 4 quite some time to venture through it’s features and quite frequent beeps of welcome sms’s from various mobile operators. A typical one read “welcome airtel mp customer to ….. land of …. Maharashtra/ AP/ Karnataka we assure u with satisfactory services n wish u happy stay in … n stay connected with …. I quickly keyed in the tele Nos of most whom I knew but stayed away from calling up.

I was greeted in office by every one incl the peon n a sweeper with a gleam in their eyes — “saab apane bhi le liya” as if I was so far missing out on some vital part of my attire. The colleagues greeted me “so u also finally bought it, what is u r No? Which connection? Why have u bought it there n using it on roaming? n alike — to most I did not have any answers or feel like replying. Most opted not to take my No after they learned it was on roaming. First I thought of them as misers only to realise they were wiser when received first call from Ranu a day later. A 5 min or something call ended with a free call charges announcement which the shopkeeper had highlighted as one of the free goodies “u r last call duration 5.17 mins call cost 37.88/-. A quick decision was made not to receive any more calls from home on it. Otherwise also one enjoys the tele at office n mess. The only third place one goes is a routine walk in the eve and once in a fortnight vis to barber which if he does not or refuses to understand what I tell him (I really don’t know what the way out is he only understands n speaks Kannada with a few English words thrown in n I understand none) will become once in two months or so (n those who saw me recently will agree) n think I/ others can keep form disturbing each other on such occasions.

Oh! forgot about the problems — the tele was working alright only after five complete days it drew my attention by constant beep to tell me I must pull out the charger which came free. On Friday Sep 15 there was sms which announced that 4 some reasons they were barring my mobile a lil too late at night. But next day onward the feeling of me being taken 4 a ride by some one took reins n made me uncomfortable, being sat weekend in corporate world I did not break any ice but come Monday morning Sep 18, my fax at 1000hrs to Bharti Airtel Limited a corporate head office started doing wonders my e mail was being monitored n replied on real time basis. Finally I let the pers on other end have my office contact No. Within 2 mins of my clicking the send button some one was holding line for me at 1215hrs and in flat 05 mins he activated my mobile with lot of apologies and swears that it will not happen again n begging for continued patronage etc… .

The whole effort is for seeking advice from more mobile savvy people on tips of usage n may be netwk one must choose. 4 reasons I will be using this till as long it lasts.