Monday, July 2, 2007

Beep... Beep!

What happens if you give an electric hair dryer to a bunch of monkeys? Not knowing how to use a technology can result in funny incidents and some times be quite disastrous.

Take for example, cell phones in the hands of Indians. Nowadays, every Indian has got one. An auto driver, rickshaw-wallah, and even a vegetable vendor! That’s great isn’t it?

Now, see what happens in a movie theater. Nobody seems to turn off their phone, and right in the middle of the movie, an annoying ring tone takes off. Instead of feeling ashamed or embarrassed, this guy picks up the call and starts talking right there. Whether it is a big conference or a big seminar, most Indians do not turn off their phone. Once, while I was sitting in a conference, one Indian senior head of some company incessantly kept talking on the phone causing inconvenience to everyone around. One of the speakers (an Indian from US) had to actually berate him to turn his phone off.

Why do we have this urge to pick up our phones no matter what we are doing?

I see people talking on cell phones while driving their cars, juggling between the steering wheel and the gear shift. Most often, these drivers are driving quite recklessly, narrowly missing hitting many people on the road.

I saw an old man on a two-wheeler, jutting into a main road from a by-lane and suddenly scrambling on the road while trying to take his ringing phone out of his pocket, completely losing balance, almost careening into an oncoming auto, nearly missing it, and then kept on driving with one hand, and using the other hand to talk over phone. This guy would have almost died, but I guess, picking up the phone right at that moment was more important.

I keep seeing so many incidents. People talking through helmets, and removing the helmets while driving, losing balance, and sometimes ending up in accidents.

I never knew that a ringing phone could be so tempting to so many Indians. It’s almost like a call from the lottery agency announcing your win.

Recently, a friend’s wife fell from a newly-constructed three storied building while she was frantically running down to pick up a phone that was ringing on the 1st floor. She was completely paralyzed from her abdomen down and is now permanently handicapped without being able to use her legs for the rest of her life. She was an excellent dancer and had just performed few days earlier to a wide audience. Her life has changed forever.

All because of a stupid phone ringing!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, think of it this way: the Darwin awards need some contestants. :)

-Amit

Anonymous said...

Here in Boston, the theaters prominently show slides before the movie is about to begin that reminds people to turn off their cell-phones. I'm sure once the theater managers start getting complaints from movie-goers in good numbers (hint, hint) who right now blog about it, something will be done about it.

Cheers,
-Amit

Sujai said...

Amit:
The same people go to US and turn off their mobiles. However in India, it is too much work to turn it off, also it is considered OK to talk in a movie theater since so many poeple do it anyway.

Same people, different places, different behaviors!

Anonymous said...

Actually, these same people continue to talk in movie theaters (only BW movies though) and art performances in USA too. I have experienced this first-hand. A good shushing generally shuts them up. :)

-Amit

Anonymous said...

Nice Post Sujoi......... !!!

I Don't have any idea about other country what they do or not... but ya its quite obvious a ring is not that much impotent then your life.

And we should be careful @ road caz that single moment when we would have pick that Phone while driving can change your life for ever.

And if that call is that much important then we can stop and Pick it.

At last I will say Precaution is better then Cure.

Regards
Dev.

SUJENDRA said...

your post is full of message to indians but calling them as idiatic makes no sense. may be you are going to switch off ur cell and see movie but makes some idiatic thing some other place. if u say idiatic indians u also includes in that, isn't it .at all times there are some exceptions based on that u cant make decision. being a indian if u wrote like dat it is shame to u , me and all . please dnt compare indians as idiots(may be its ur wish but u also become one of them)

yours different posts about india are pretty good. keep it up

Anonymous said...

WE do complain a lot [:)] lot of posts do signify that..

lavixu said...

Another post to be added would be "talking loudly no matter where"!

Fun2oos said...

It was nice to read the incident around us which we usually watch at them.