Thursday 4 April 2013

Evolution

While the title is evolution, don’t be put off thinking that this might be another elaborate post challenging Darwin’s theory about the transition of the homo sapien species from ape to man. As I am writing this post with a stylus pen from my new Samsung galaxy Note II, I cannot help but admire the transformation that a cell phone has gone through. From heavy weight gadgets to today’s Android/Windows/iOS smart phones, from being a luxury which only a privileged few could afford to a household commodity owned even by vegetable vendors and auto rickshaw drivers, the humble cell phone has come a long way. Today it has become a necessity that we cannot live without, and so I decided to dedicate my next post to this wonderful gadget.
The first ever cell phone I saw was way back in 1997-98 where my dad brought an AT and T Nokia phone home. It had a huge antenna, was the size of a walkie-talkie and weighed like a melon. It could be used as a paper weight. Nevertheless the idea that you could place a call from anywhere was by itself so exciting that we could not help but admire this small wonder.
My very first phone was a Nokia 3100.In those days owning a mobile phone was considered to be a status symbol and I would proudly show off my phone wherever I went.
Soon a new species of phones with colour screens and cameras came around and my black and white phone started appearing outdated. So my next phone was a Sony Ericsson K700i. How I came to buy this phone is a long story, but to cut a long story short, the true Virgo that I am, I launched an in depth analysis of all the phones in the market in my pursuit to own “The best” phone, putting down the pros and cons of every phone in the market, deciding on one phone one minute and switching to the next one in the blink of an eye. And then one fine day my younger sister went out shopping and bought a Nokia 6600 as casually as she would buy a new item of clothing or a pair of shoes. With a colour screen, built in MP3 player and camera it left me feeling sore. And that is the story of my Sony Ericsson K700i, bought in a last ditch effort to outshine my sister’s phone and that I did for with a colour screen, MP3 plus real media player, camera and 32 MB memory it was a class apart. At work people would stop by my desk to take a look at my cute and small (small phones were trendy in those days unlike today) phone and I would proudly show off all the features.
There was an old Pepsi ad that went "Yeh Dil Maange More" which very well depicts the human tendency of never being satisfied and I was no exception. My next phone was a Nokia N73, gifted to me by my dad, saying he had no use for such a “high end” phone. With 64 MB RAM, 3.15MP camera it was the thing in vogue and I could not let go of it.
Next, touchscreen phones caught my fancy and being a true Nokia fan, I bought myself a Nokia C7. With a touch screen, 8MP camera, 8GB ram it was a beauty. The best part was the web and email accessibility, with an internet connection on your phone; you no longer needed to rely on having a PC around in order to get online.
Then Andriod and particularly Samsung hit the market big time. What started as a casual fling with my Dad’s Android phone turned out to be a serious love affair and to my dismay I found that life without Andriod was colourless and grey.  Dad then gifted me a brand new Samsung Galaxy Note II (My present phone using which I am writing this post). With a 5.5 inches screen,  8 MP camera, Android OS, v4.1.1 (Jelly Bean),  Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, and a stylus pen, it is the phone of the moment. It reminds me of the Onida ad, "Neighbours envy, owner’s pride!
So that is the story of how I transitioned from being awestruck about my black and white Nokia phone to feeling depressed about my touch screen Non-Android based phone. Yes, technology has evolved and so have we. While I am at the risk of sounding too philosophical,  is it not true that not so long ago we would write letters, call people on their home numbers or stop by a neighbour to say hello. Today SMS and emails have become a way of life and we cannot live without this little gizmo.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic. Love reading your blogs. Keep it up

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    1. Thank you Pappa, your encouragement and comments will definitely motivate me to write more :)

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