Got a call from My 16 year old cousin the other day, Here’s the conversation
She : Hi Bro, Howz life!
Me : Fine Dear.
She: When you come to mangalore the next time, get me the spare nokia handset you have with you.
Me : Why do you need that handset for?
She : What a Dumb Q, Bro! grow up, I need put a SIM in that and carry when I am in college!
Me : But your college is a stones throw from your home, you can hear your mom shout from your Class you say!
She : That’s beside the point, I Need it to show off, more than to call! GET MY POINT!
Me : Oh! Thanks for an honest answer!
Cell phones are now commonplace. With multiple service providers in the Market. 4 each in the Metros and 3 each in the regional circles, have ensured a very healthy competition and in turn giving the subscribers service at a very cheap and affordable rate!
A person can go mobile at as less as 300 Bucks now, and there would hundred diff schemes and options associated with that card, the effective price paid for the service would be very less.
Now coming to the main point; Cell phones, more Colloquially called as Handsets, and ’kauwa’ in the local Mumbai underworld;-)
More than 90-95% of the handsets in Mumbai or can I say India, are traded thru something known as the Grey market.
A gray Market is a shade better than the not-so-good black market, hence the name.
So, The price difference would be a cool 3-4K between the MRP of the manufacturers and the price the gray Marketer would offer.
A couple of time tested places to shop for Handsets in Bombay are the Heera-panna market at Haji-ali and the Alfa store in Vile-parle. Though there are shops selling cells at every nook and corner of the country now, It is always better to buy from the BEST possible source! These people would also be giving you a minimum six Month warranty on any defect if found in the Cell.
Technology is advancing at such a pace that whatever you buy today is already outdated!, so if you are a tech-savy used to all kinds of gizmos then buy a handset that will satisfy your tech-desire for at least a year. You would be lucky if something new and better doesn’t come out by that time.
Some Hi-tech facilities given by Handset Manufacturers these days are
But lets us now say that such Handsets are in use by a very teeny-weeny segment of the Handset users. And most of us still are in the’Oh-so-Plain’ types of cells.
So even before you go in to buy a simple Cell phone to meet your actual communication or SHOWOFF needs, Make sure that the handset at least provides ease of use, convenience and certain other basic functions and a bit of entertainment!
Ascertain that it has at least 3-4 varieties of Games, believe you me these games are the best source of Time-pass in many waiting at the doctors, standing in the queue type of moments.
Messaging better known as SMS would be another most used facility in your phone, so as far as possible go in for a Cell which has the Grammar, or T9 Dictionary logic built in. This often-ignored feature would be helping you in saving a lot of your time and effortof typing those lengthy messages. SMS is the in thing these days, all contests, games and prizes are announced on this.
Navigational ease is something that should not be compromised at any cost, The key pad of a handset should not be hotch-botch, Getting from one menu to another and selecting options, calling, saving numbers should not be a cumbersome job. I’ve seen people keeping a cell phone, but referring a pocket diary to dial the numbers, as this is much easier than storing and retrieving numbers from their cell.
Choose a phone with a wide Display screen, Else be ready to loose out on many of the nice jokes and graphic type messages going around these days. I mean what is the diff between a pager and a cell if I have to scroll cross every time to read messages or numbers.
Then there are various other not so imp-features you can look for in your phone just to give your cell-usage a cosmetic makeup;-), features like, Ring tone composing or download, Logo designing etc.
Now that you are a proud owner of a brand-new cell phone, ensure that you use it judiciously, else the same scheme which you opted for and seemed so cheap and lucrative when the Marketing guy coaxed you in buying the Holy Sim card will bring with itself a Bill huge enough to crush your monthly budget, so if you consider yourself a very low end user. Prepaid is the card for you! with this you can keep a tab on your usage on an online basis.
I was in a Pankaj Udhas live concert once in an auditorium, and a guy sitting about 3-4 rows behind us was the most busiest person on earth, every 5 mins in between Pankaj Udhas’s Melodious voice we would here a croak’Haan, Am At this concert.This is really good, you should listen him sing, He is too good’. No amount of Shhhh and Hshhhs could help us Shut him up. I hate such people, So all you guys please don’t get on my hate list.
Doing a Mad-Max type stunt by riding the mo-bike with one hand and one hand and ear on the cell is not a pretty scene and god forbid if something goes wrong, the next scene would be uglier. So no matter how urgent the call it can always wait till you get of the vehicle, or you get across the road;-)
I wonder what these med-researchers are upto always, one day they say tomato is good to keep blood cancer at bay, the next day they say that any thing with tiny seeds in it is cancerous. so as things stand now, Cell phones and the radio rays that are emitted from it are harmful and can cause Brain tumors, Cancer and all sort of nasty illnesses. But dont stop using just cos they are saying so. you never know they may come out and say the IQ of cell users goes up at least 3-4 points with all the rays and things going around their brains.
Have not yet decided whether i’ll be giving her the cell phone or not, But she is still pitching for it.The most amazing part was her honest admission that’she needs the cell, not to keep in touch with anyone’ but’For show off!’, Keeping in touch is something that comes with it, she says.
Marconi would have turned in grave hearing her logic!
Each one to his own.!
I hope you’ll agree with me when I say being accessible all the time is the biggest drawback of this thing
So, Whatever the reason you have bought your cell phone for. communicating, showoff, time pass or any other reason best known to you. Enjoy;-),
Cos tomorrow is another day. They may start selling telepathy and Cell Phones will be Passé;-)