Mobile Phone Mayhem!

Let me begin this week's column by giving you my mobile phone number. Here it is: 98300... wait a minute! That is so silly of me. Really silly. Why would I want to share my cell number with 60 lakh readers of this iconic newspaper!

If I did, some of you would call me, and the phone would have a really tough day on Monday going kring-krriinngg-ring... never mind!

How many times have you changed your caller tune in the last 5 years or more?
I am sure most of you have. My 17 year old daughter (like most teenagers) changes her caller tune about once a month - maximum two.

Let me share something with you. I have had the same caller tune for the last many, many years. Since the time the movie Kal Ho Na Ho released... yes, lyrics by Javed Akhtar and the haunting melody created by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. You have guessed it right! It is Kal Ho Na Ho - has been for many years, and I do not intend to change it in a while. Lovely song, na.

After reading all those stories about how excessive use of the cell phone may damage health, one has started using headphones. The truth is I lose so many of these ear sets that one often goes back to the bad habit of talking on my cell phone with the instrument placed on my ear. Not good! And what is worse is when people use the mobile phone when crossing the road. Let us take a pledge to NEVER EVER talk on the cell phone while crossing the street.

Stay safe!

[This is the English translation of the Bengali article in Anandabazar Patrika's Knowledge Darpan | Monday, September 17, 2012]