Mobile Mad Rush

I am often bombarded with the question, why I don’t possess a mobile phone, and it is hard for me each time when someone questions me to give an adequate and satisfying answer. Given the present situation and circumstances I don’t feel the need to have one, but the very next question that my friends pose is : But we don’t get you when we want! It is true, often I am ‘out of bounds’ for some people, because I am out of the house, and so they cannot contact me immediately. But the fact is that at least some times I do not want to be contacted at all, by any one! This I call my ‘private time’. No one has the right to intrude into my private time, for whatever reason. It is however not that I am so very adamant about this notion of private time, but I don’t want to auction my private time for anyone to intrude. Even when I had the mobile phone for a year, I was sure to turn it off at 9 p.m. and switch it on at about 6.30 a.m. That too annoyed some of the people who could not have access to me during the time in between, but I was clear that I did not want to be disturbed at that time period.

Frankly speaking there are reasons for not possessing a mobile phone, which I consider quite personal, apart from the reason I had mentioned above. Without entering deep into the issue, let me just highlight what keeps me at a distance from the purchase and use of a mobile phone, which today has become an absolute necessity. I have seen it in the hands of rickshaw pullers, auto rickshaw drivers, even beggars have it. I am not exaggerating. While walking along the prestigious Camac street in Kolkata, I came across a beggar in his wheel chair (probably he was crippled), shouting at someone on the mobile phone. We take it for granted that everyone who matters in the society should have one; it has become such an indispensable means of communication that when being introduced to strangers, the first thing they ask is ‘what is your mobile phone number?’ And there is an expression of bewilderment when I tell them that I don’t have one! I leave it to them to imagine what had gone wrong with me that I don’t have one. I am happy with whatever they might think of.

It may be possible that I am quite prejudiced against the mobile phone, and would often find more reasons not to have than to have it. I would not go to enlist the reasons why we should have a mobile phone, and why it may be necessary that every citizen in the country has a mobile phone! Nor will I try to enlist the reasons why we should not have. However from a personal front, there are perhaps two reasons why I find it not suitable for me, at this juncture. The first one is this : technology has grown rapidly in the recent past few years, more than the past centuries altogether, and the life of human beings has changed considerably due to it. But I feel there is a limit to flow with the technological current; without denying the uses of the cellphone, we are aware of the misuses of it, and how the use of it can be detrimental to positive human growth. Just because technology offers the benefits of being “connected”, I am not required to make use of it, whether I really require it or not. Imagine the danger if we were to flow with the current of technology… we may end up nowhere! It is not a personal battle with technology, but a personal control mechanism to say that I may not use the technology that I don’t require just now. I feel the need to say ‘no’ gracefully, and am very happy not to have it.

To have a mobile phone has become a prestigious issue today, and every educated and literate person is expected to have one; there are even illiterate persons, who cannot read and write in their vernacular, making use of the mobile phone to be in touch with their circle of friends and relatives. I would prefer not to run in the rat-race, and have nothing to complain about those who feel the need of it. Others may have necessity which I don’t realize, and that is another reason which keeps me away from having one. Maybe there is a wicked pleasure and joy in me while telling people that I don’t have it, but honestly speaking I am happy without it, and wonder if I would be happy to have it at all, even if everyone of my friends wish I have it. Sometimes I feel the pinch of not having it, but I feel that is part of the deal. Yesterday after the Christmas mass at night, some of my friends wanted to wish me by calling me and since I was in a mission which did not have a land-phone, they could not reach me; but what gives me so much of hope is that, we managed all these years without it, and can’t we manage some inconveniences by not having it?

Today I would like to pause for a while and reflect on the different blessings of nature and technology which are at my disposal. Most often I take them for granted, and don’t even question if I truly need them to reach my fullest potentiality! Today is the time for me to ask that moot question : does this technology really help me to reach out to others, and to reach my fullest potentiality. It may also be possible that I realize that there are minor and so-called older technologies, which may be far more useful for me than the most recent ones, and it may call me to reorganize my thinking. Let me be content with what is useful and needed for me, instead of running to acquire every new thing that enter into our markets. I do not want to be lured by market or technology, but wish to make use of them in as much as they help me. But let me close this blog with an open ending : if after a few months, I feel the need and urgency to use a mobile phone, I would not hesitate to get one, and I will do it happily and joyfully!