Clutch the mobile phone but don’t fall into its clutches

While reminiscing about issues in communication, it is often said that “in those days mobile phones were not there”. Now, the world over, be it in deep Africa or posh Europe, almost everyone holds a mobile phone. If this be an index of progress, India is far advanced, with the urban-rural divide getting narrow. UPI payments are being favoured in all cities and even in some villages. It makes transactions in small denominations easy while buying jhalmuri on a train or peanuts from a roadside vendor.

In the 1980s, on my first trip to Dubai, I wondered why people walking on the road were talking to themselves. It took me a while to realise that they were, in fact, talking over their mobile phones. I felt silly, just like the dapper senior in a television commercial a couple of decades later when mobile phones came to India. He believed that a lovely woman was inviting him to dinner, until she took her mobile phone away from her ear. The heartbreak visible on his face was enhanced by the tinkling of shattering glass.