We all know mobile phones and their extensive usage.Initially when the cell phones were launched in the market it was available to all but affordable only for a set of people who could avail it.
Phone is the symbol of emergency however, today's cell phone technology has become a status symbol. When compared with the scenario has now changed. It is found everywhere and in everybody’s hand right from a school kid to an old man begging on the street. Phones in previous days were considered to be used at times of emergency but these days it has become a part and parcel of one’s life and an essential medium to lead lives.
School kids are fond of texting and making calls to their friends while old people find it tedious to cope up with the latest technology. This inspired me to weave a story. Let’s all read a small story of a girl Neeli and her addiction to mobile."Why am I receiving so many messages on my phone every night, wondered Neeli?" She was amazed to see messages from a number which she recognized but vaguely remembered. She got up every morning startled to see her phone over flowing with messages.
She was about to open the messages but suddenly realized that she had to rush to her college. She looked at the wall clock, it was eight thirty in the morning and she was getting late to her college. She rushed into the bath-room, looked into the mirror hung on the wall, Neeli had developed dark circles around her eyes which looked awkward exactly opposite to her fair skin. She completed her morning chores and arrived at the dining-table to eat her break-fast.
Neeli’s mother was waiting for her to get down from her bed-room. Neeli started to gobble up the sandwich even without a word and gulped a glass of water and bid good-bye to her mother and rushed out of the house.She came to the bus-stop and soon did she realize that she had missed the college bus and she had to avail the public transport. She trampled her feet and looked into her watch.
She waited for the bus while she heard someone honking rhythmically without pause. She turned around with rage to slap the person; she was happy and surprised to see her college-mate Tejas. He smiled and greeted her and also asked her if she is willing to take a lift till college.Neeli did not wait till he completed his sentence and she was already a pillion rider for Tejas.
They both exchanged smiles. They spoke about chemistry class all the way and also mimicked few lecturers. They reached college, Tejas felt his bike light, he looked back to check and found Neeli missing, he pondered for her and saw her walking towards the class. He found it strange but he did not have time to think about it. He parked the bike and started towards the class, his legs leading him to class while his brain was still pondering over an answer for Neeli’s weird behavior.Evening bell rang and everybody walked out of the college premises and headed towards the college-bus.
Tejas ran after Neeli, stopped her to check on what made her jump off the bike and behave indifferently. He was too late to stop the moving bus.She reached home, took the phone and looked into the mirror, she had grown darker and had become weak and tired, her collar bones popping out of her shoulder girdle. She changed to her night suit and lay on her bed with her cell phone. She had received fifty five messages since morning and she had no time to read them.
She slandered the lecturers for not letting the usage of mobiles inside the college premises. She started running through the messages one after another and replying to all her friends in the order she read her messages. She immediately got responses from her friends as well.She was so engrossed in texting messages she hardly did realize that most of her senses had got disconnected from the outside world.She even did not realize her her mother screaming her lungs out for dinner and Neeli went on texting till her mother reached to a point of snatching her cell phone from Neeli’s hand.
Neeli looked up with complete anger, gnawing her teeth. Her mother startled looking at Neeli’s expression. This was an unseen sight for her mother. She patted Neeli on her back, looked into her eyes and called her calmly for dinner.
Neeli walked to the dining-table, had a few morsels of rice quietly while her fingers still played with the keys of her cell phone.Neeli went back to her bed-room. She opened her study material, gazed at the book and immediately her phone beeped again and this time it was Tejas. Neeli was happy to see his message, she replied back immediately to him. He asked her about the weird behavior, she gave him an unacceptable answer, but she did not forget to apologize. Tejas wished her a wonderful night while he went to his dreamland, she messaged him back but he was fast asleep.
She realized it was too late for her to be awake as well and she had to get up early and made sure that she would not miss the college bus again.Neeli’s mother slept in her bed-room trying to figure out her daughter’s expression when her phone was snatched. She thought over for some time and realized that she was the reason behind her daughter's abnormal life. Neeli's mother, a widow looked after her husband's business after his death and paid no attention towards Neeli's life and her attitude towards it.She cried in despair for ignoring her child and her negligence had led Neeli to such an atrocious state, she cleared her eyes and walked up to Neeli's room.
Neeli’s attitude towards her life had drastically changed. A girl, who once topped the class was now a failure in her class, a last-bench-er. She had now lost interest in everything.The lights were turned off. She tip-toed into the bed-room, she found her daughter in a corner of the room, on the floor with her cell phone texting messages.
Her mother was devastated to see her daughter’s plight. She went close to Neeli, looked at her, she drew herself back immediately. She turned on the lights, pulled her daughter from the corner and snatched her cell phone. She looked into the phone to check the to and fro flow of messages. She was shocked, her heartbeat almost skipped.
She forcefully dragged Neeli away from the floor, Neeli was in deep sleep but her sub-conscious was awake and all it craved was for a cell phone and her fingers kept moving pondering for keys.Yes, Neeli was lost in the world of messages. She was a kid addicted to cell-phone so much that she had no sense of the world. Neeli’s mother embraced her wept whole night looking at her kid’s plight cursing herself for her irresponsible behavior and ignorance.
The scenario in the above story may be a hypothetical situation however, we may notice many such Neeli’s around us but we ignore them Technology should never be a reason for us to get disconnected from ourselves and our loved ones. Neeli mentioned here might be a fictional character but we do have such characters who are fond of cell phones more than their own life.They get agitated and frustrated when they do not receive messages from the other end. They constantly keep looking at the screen waiting for it to blink or beep for hours together.Today’s children are tomorrow’s future; duty of parents does not end by just getting admissions for their kids in an international school or by getting them expensive gifts, it is the valuable time which they spend with their kid matters by educating them about good and bad sides of not just the technology but everything leading them to shape their life accordingly.
