Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Ode to a 1100

It all started when I lost the mobile that my mom gifted me for my placement. It was about 4 and half years ago, one cold and misty night in January 2004. The mobile I lost was a Nokia 2100 and I had kept it very carefully and scratch free but some how it managed to find its way out of my pocket and ventured into the wide open world on the outside.

The frustration that the loss created was over bearing and I had decided not to purchase a mobile at all. But in a month's time I discovered that once mobile, you need to be mobile for the rest of your live, because living without is like living handicapped.

One fine day in February 2004 I walked into a mobile showroom in Chennai and picked up my first mobile, a Nokia 1100 that I purchased for about 5K (Yes, it was of that price then!!!) It was one of the first payments that I made with my Standard Chartered card. I have a hunch it was the very first...

This time I was determined to be careful in having the mobile. But I did not attach any emotional strings to my new buddy as I had to the one that I had lost. I think my mom still believes that I sold the 2100 and picked up the 1100... Friends came and went by and the mobile was used to call up innumerable number of friends. It had the most amazing battery life and with a active mobile life it used to give me 2-3 days of power without charging.

Chennai went by and Bangalore arrived and the mobile was still in scene. An active mobile life replaced a more passive one during my early times in Oracle when friends were scanty and hours of vetti chatting on mobile was done with and family life with my aunt's family started.

The starting of my love life, gave a fresh impetus to my mobile and big and busy talktimes started. Messaging was initiated in a big way and my mobile proved its might, the key pad may have a few numbers vanished, but the spirit of the mobile was untranished. Now and then there were a few gliches, some calls getting cut in signal transfers between towers, sometimes a rare hang. But nothing which a restart could not resolve.

In recent times, every true friend that I have had, has told me to get a new mobile. Not once or twice but countless times, but I did not want to give seperation to my oldest buddy. But eras pass, ages end, so its the end of the second age in Sudhir's mobile exsistance. And 1100 must be put to rest. Heres raising a toast to the ever youthful, abdominable, simplest and toughest, "Made for India" mobile.