(Dis-) Connecting People!

I was in my fourth year of my college then, it was somewhere during my final semester of Summer Internship that I got my first mobile phone. The year was 2002. Cut to 2006. I am now using my 5th mobile instrument. But this little combination and arangement of complex circuits and plastic with so-called mp3 quality ringtones doesn't quite command the same respect from me. I don't deny that my cell phone bills run into figures one could save to buy a luxury yacht! Niether am I running away from the fact that this little piece of engineering came to my rescue many a times in moments of dire need. But just ...consider the following scenes...take your pick!

You are enjoying a nice dinner with someone at last...after having cancelled it / postponed it over a million times. The setting is just perfect, the music is just right and the waiter also knows that you don't like him standing over the two of you so he comes only when you snap your fingers! The response time makes your dinner companion wonder if you're a regular at such a classy place...a confusion that happily leave her in! In short...you could get up and stop the master clock of the universe, if there was one, so that the time just wouldn't move. But it does...and in the very next moment...your right thigh goes on auto-massage mode! Relax...its just another call and your cell is in the VIBRATE mode. Its your boss and he takes a complete rundown of the day's meeting with the clients from you, not once asking if he's inturrepted you. By the time the call ends...your partner has folded her napkin and has asked for the cheque. End of Part One.

Its been a couple of years since you and your partner have been together and even though there is a thousand miles between you the fact that a simple " :-* " which happens to be the smiley combination for a kiss...is enough to get the warmth going in your heart. The SMS lets you be naughty at times and sometimes jus leave cute little nothings that keep the "fire" going. How should I put it...hmmm...the mobile telephone is a great "enabler" of romance. Then one day after a horrible day at work you call up your partner and you're put on call wait. Of course, seeing you're calling your partner would surely cut short his conversation and talk to you. So you wait...and wait...and wait..The line disconnects. Its the same story for half an hour. You SMS and there's nothing for an hour. End of Part Two.

You're great at playing with words. In fact...your friends say that you could talk the damn kidnapper to drop you back home the same day and thats not all. Maybe even get him to turn himself in and confess to all his past crimes too. So this one night you decide to take your lady love out for a coffee and the moment you reached the climax of your hyper-animated joke...BEEP-BEEP.... She gets an SMS. She pretends to keep listening to you. You ignore the message and go on with the joke till it finishes and she looks at you as if you're the waiter asking for the order. Coz' all this time she was first busy reading and then replying to that message. You let it go. Since its your treat. You ask her to order ANYTHING. Her eyes light up...she starts reading the menu, all excited and eager. Then...BEEP-BEEP...she checks the SMS...smiles and starts replying. You try and be calm and ask..."So what are we having tonight?" She listens to you in the 2nd time...with the same "mind-elsewhere" look. And then says...messaging alongside...I'd take whatever you're taking honey... And flashes a big smile...and then...back to the reply she's typing. End of Part Three.

There is a Part Four - Five - Six - Seven...and so on. But I guess we get the point.

The reactions in each case of the other person...the victim...can be anything. Depending on how much he/she can afford to gulp down. The point here is not to see who's at fault. I am not doubting...rather it might be so that in 100% of the cases reponding to the mobile phone was utmost important. The point is NOT this. It rather is the fact that how easily have we let this little devil called a mobile phone ruin our personal interactions? How readily we decide to prioritise a phone call / SMS over the person who's sitting next to you in flesh and blood? Putting EVERYTHING around you on hold...coz' that 10K worth of thing went BEEP-BEEP! I am not crusading against them. I am FOR them. They make me feel relieved when someone close is working late and plans to take an auto after 11:30pm...They sure are important. No doubt.

There are lots of things one has to do together. Lots of them. The whole essence lies in prioritizing them. I am jus wondering when do we decide to give some importance...a little basic respect to that person sitting next to us? When do we start looking into the other persons eyes & not the screen of one's mobile while in a conversation? When do we stop thinking about the "worst case scenarios"...just coz' someone did not (for whatever reason) reply to the SMS in the assumed 5mt window or dare to keep you on call waiting? When do we start cutting people with mobiles some slack and stop loosing sleep over a delayed response?

Or...when do we start SWITHING OFF our mobiles and SWITCHING ON to people around...at least the ones who matter?