A few decades ago, my father, after returning from USA, told me, “Your husband should get one of those tiny phones which can be carried everywhere. Car or clinic. Look at my second son-in-law, because he has a phone, he is keeping in touch with everyone.”
Thinking that it would never to come to India, I brushed it off saying we didn’t need the mobile as my husband’s clinic was just across our house.
Strangely, just a three or four decades later, the mobile phone started pouring heavily into India. Initially, large mobiles hit the market and later, sleek ones with features I never thought a device that small would have, came in.
Recently, my maid bought a mobile phone. Since then, she uses it diligently and dials as many missed calls as she wants!
The other day, she came home, excited. “Amma, Narendra Modi is going to put `500 in our accounts if we call a certain number,” she said. The very next day she came back with a crest fallen face and said that the money had not arrived so far. That’s when she asked me, “Can you get me the correct phone number to clarify my query?” All that I could do was laugh.
But today, using mobile phones is more of a disease than a necessity! Earlier, in meetings, seminars, gatherings or conferences people would have long conversations. These days, people either talk on the mobile phone, surf Facebook and other websites or text. Families don’t even converse with each other.
People not only put their lives in danger by using mobile phones while driving. They talk on phones while walking on the pavement, while crossing roads and even while crossing dangerous railway tracks. The latest trend, take selfies in the most dangerous of places.
Even the Swachh Bharat programme has not taken off with the same fervour as the cell phone, mobile phone users are growing without any exceptions.
The mobile phone has in fact become a part of the human anatomy itself. Without it, people feel disabled.
The gross misuse of the mobile phone which makes the owner dwell in a world which none can enter leads to many physical and psychological problems. It’s just another addiction in the society.
The addiction for which there is no known medicine. As any other abuse, if left uncared for, it is going to create chaos!
Email: paisuman@yahoo.co.in