Time out without Cellphone

It was very warm & sunny last evening and we decided to go and cool off in a near by store. On the way I realized I was not carrying my cell phone! It is something which rarely happens and I resisted the temptation to go back and fetch it. I was curious to see the impact of not carrying the cell phone for one evening.

Flashback: Summer is normally mild in Seattle and the mercury peaks only for few days or weeks. So air conditioners are absent in most of the Seattle area apartments and independent homes.

Coming back to the story- While we enjoyed the evening out, thoughts of missing cell phone kept coming back. Even though I did not expect official calls, you never know when some one needs you. What if any of my friends are trying to reach us? What if my vehicle breaks down and if I have to call for any help? We even thought of visiting a friend’s place and but gave up because we did not know his evening plans or if he was busy. I was bit nervous, anxious till we reached back home. I was relieved and disappointed J to find no missed calls or voice messages. Even though I don’t doubt the benefits of carrying the cell phone everywhere, I felt it’s possible to live without it – at least for a short duration

Flashback – 30 years ago, Place: India - Bangalore: During those days, let alone cell phone, we did not even have a land phone at our house. My dad had access to telephone only during office hours and during this time he was the single point of contact to receive / send emergency information to the external world. Many of our relatives and friends did not have telephone. However in case of emergency, our friends and relatives with telephone would build an improptu channel and pass the information over to the required person or family. During those days, we visited friends and relatives without making prior appointments. Our success rate of finding people in their homes was very high and very rarely encountered locked houses. That’s because we used to plan our visits based on the lifestyle patterns of each family like working couple with kids in school, families active in social work or those having retired / elderly people at home, weekend preferences, etc. It was a status symbol to have a telephone at home. Due to limited penetration of the telephone, there were only few advantages it did not offer significant benefits like today

Current Situation, Place: India – Key decisions are made over land lines and cell phones. People spend more time on the cell phone than personal talking. On a lighter note, our government might introduce a law where every new born child is associated with a unique cell phone number (like Social Security Number in USA). So in future, population census might mean counting cell phone subscribers across various networks. That way our population counts is most update :)