The Tale of Nokia 100

I just have to make a post today! :D

Colour display, polyphonic ringtone, integrated flashlight, FM radio, incredibly lightweight and best of all, the battery LASTS for DAYSSSSSS!!!!!! Read this if you want to feel the awesomeness of Nokia 1oo. :P 

And, this is about the fact that I spent the whole year (okay, minus a few days) with a basic Nokia, Nokia 100 (yes, in this age of smart phones. How great is that? Very!). So..Yup! No Whatsapp, not-every-time-Facebook, no other apps and no music player...but it has something I am sure most of the phones do not have today- a Torch :P :D

Oh! I would miss this torch wala phone. Well, I am not abandoning it right away but soon I will (I'll let it complete at least one full year with me ;-)). I'll truly miss these torch-wale-phone wale din. 

When this phone came to my life in January this year, i.e. when my old phone got damaged, it had a blue body and it truly looked like a toy purchased from a toy-shop gubbarre-wala. Later on, it changed from blue to black. Wow! People change phones when they have a basic Nokia, I changed its body from blue to black..Laugh Laugh..Bindass ho ke. Though it doesn't make sense but only because you insist that I tell the full story, I'll surely oblige :P Actually the phone was purchased by my Grandma. Oh! she just felt like having mobile shobile. Well destiny had something else in store, my phone got damaged and though I didn't want any phone but I had to keep a phone with me. So I got this blue phone. Poor Grandma! :P Around 3-4 months later, she again felt like having mobile, a basic Nokia again, this time black. It was then I felt that blue is too toyish, so I exchanged it for black. I seriously don't remember when exactly I changed it from blue to black, just like I realised only today when I got my old phone back that I used this phone for little-less-than-an-year, I thought I was using it for around one and half year. I had forgotten quite a lot :P

Fortunately, I did not have to take the blue toy to many places. I hardly went anywhere out in early 2013. Only a few really fortunate people got to see the blue toy.  

Okay- so first the memories attached to this phone, my torch-wala-Nokia!

This phone being nicknamed Apple & Blackberry and what not by my friends, when I used to go my dance institute. And how I used to reply to them by switching on the 'torch' :P "Beta iss phone mein wo hai jo tumhare phone me nahi hai, the Torch :P" It used to be so fun! I am sure the first thing they would notice if I go there is the fact I have abandoned the torch wala phone. On one particular instance, a batch mate was really impressed that how I really don't care about not having a better phone and the fact that I have to be with a basic Nokia. I so remember her expression through which she expressed all this though she didn't say everything. Sympathetic her! And in a completely Priyaa style, I told her that Hello! I have used 'better' phones. I am using it on my will, okay? It’s my attempt to go away from moh-mayaa for some time and laughed and from my tone probably she realised that I am not-deprived-of-any-comforts-by-my-family and then she laughed too. I later thought she might have as well imagined how I couldn't afford a phone at least better than a basic Nokia. Hahaha! Anyway, she was a nice girl. And I did make an impact on her that we should not care what people think about us.  Wow! Inspiriational me! :P Chalo, something good happened to somebody at least. *Glad* ;-)

The Moh-Mayaa-Mukt me!

Even on the days when I had a Blackberry given from office, I didn't care to explore all I could do with a Blackberry. I didn't even configure my personal email ID on it. It was used only for checking official mails and official calls or calls from one or two colleagues, for work purpose mostly. I never even bothered to change the wall-paper of that phone, let alone check out its applications. I was so happy with my work and the liberty my Nokia had given me.

It is really because of this phone only that I totally became myself. Days would have totally been spent scrolling down FB wall and realising there's nothing to do. Days would have totally been spent immersed in music which is not exactly a bad thing but I needed to resort to things other than songs and thus this phone very much helped in that. Days would have been spent on Whatsapp, the meaningless-irritating-forward-messages-being-sent-just-for-the-sake-of-it that have worked their way out to whatsapp, and other distractions phone throws at you which become stressful sometime specially when you want more of your own down time. Yes for me, it lasted for an year. And specially when all the jhol of being on Whatsapp and chatting & messaging on those f**king Whatsapp groups is only peer-pressure and specially when you realise that the contacts in your phonebook are no more than mere contacts. "If I can't have anyone to talk to over phone when needed, I don't want to chat or even be on Whatsapp and other annoying apps just for you people who think it is utterly important to confine to stupidities! -_- "  It was easy actually. I just had to tell that I am using Nokia 100 because my phone is damaged, if asked at all. Period. I can't tell here what an awesomely awesome thing I did by doing this and what awesomely awesome things happened to me. But first a disclaimer:

I am not someone who discards Whatsapp or other apps or technology. Its a great thing to be in touch with friends, to do awesomely crazy things together with friends & cousins. I myself felt in last weeks that now I want to be on Whatsapp. I truly felt the need of having the goodreads app installed everytime I had to search for the exact edition of the book I am reading. Yes, I try to enlist the same edition that I actually read. And now having joined the Spanish classes, I genuinely felt the need of having Duolingo app installed (I hope the name's right) so that I can practice the language. But when everything becomes a norm (read peer pressure) and the very things that are to make life easy for us take the turn and do the exact opposite, they just have to be abandoned kicked out from your life.

The Free me!

Not because I started using a basic phone, am I calling myself free. I was free because I never made myself pressurized to be away from anything & then realize what happens nor did I do any resolutions of being away from anything. Things just happened. I was always open to have a phone except only in the beginning when I didn't want any phone. It was part laziness that I was not getting my phone repaired. I just thought it would be too messy to get it repaired, to first save everything somewhere else and blah blah blah! And part anger that everything in phone, from contacts to happy faces in photographs & from the emotions in songs to messages in the phone, was phony. I just didn't want to own that phone or any phone. But I never made myself to any oath to be away from moh-maya. I never pressurized myself. I always had the liberty of going for a smart phone. For some three months (the engagement days of my sister) I had my sister's phone on which I would open the messenger & would chat with some *new friends*. I am referring to UPAR days, listen you two! I don't have to admit that it was fun. The UPAR people already know, don't you? ;-) 

But I am glad that my sister's phone wasn't always available. Especially for songs or FM in night. Most of the time specially post 8 pm, she would be talking to jiju. God! I really felt alone on some days when I realized now somebody is more important than me that I can't talk to my sis when I want to because she's talking to jiju. :P I used to spend my time in books, over wedding preparations and other stuff. The best part, I would try to sleep when I had nothing. This is really the best part as I had a problem to keep on staying awake and listen to music or well..thinking over stuff. Now, I do stay awake sometimes but I don't over stretch myself. I have learnt to how not to think and sleep when I should, thanks to those days and my determination. Yes, I would give due credit to myself -_-

I got a job almost after a month of my sister's marriage. I very well had a Blackberry. I could have easily installed apps and songs and other stuff. But I was happy in my work and the busy creative and productive time that office life offered. Besides, I really prefer to talk over phone than on being solely online. This phone very much gave me that liberty necessity. ;-) And on some gine-chune din, I would take my brother's cell to tune into FM at night.

I even roamed around in a mall with my sis & jiju to look for a phone last to last month. But I just couldn't figure out what I wanted. At last both of them said, "See we think you don't need a phone. Had you really wanted a phone, you would have known what to look for" Part of it was true too, no?

Had I really went on this moh-mayaa-mukt phase with all the expectations of what I'll get in return, or had buried myself under the promises and resolutions, it would have been like pressing a spring with all your force and one day it would have been released with a bang. Oh I am so glad it happened naturally. But yes, I admit, only I can be this careless! Why careless? Read further :P

The fun part of getting the Old Phone back!

Would you believe that I had actually forgotten that my damaged phone was actually sent to be repaired and was almost repaired except the fact that it is opened from back i.e. no back cover, the battery can fall anytime! The phone had been repaired but I didn't care to check it at that time. My excuse was that it’s open from backside and I can't use it. But man, I should have at least seen how much of it was repaired. But I didn't. Initially it was both anger & laziness, later it was indifference, and what followed after 11 months, i.e. now, was a total pachka.

Yes, I did not remember that. It was only when out of the blue in the morning, I just got myself to the corner of bed where the old phone had been for last three four months, plucked out my sim card from Nokia 100 and tried to put in Nokia C5, just ainwe hi.  And, it worked. The phone was alright. I was so surprised for a moment that I was like what the hell I was doing all these months! This is funny. I know. Initially it was laziness-indifference-anger all rolled into one. And gradually I started saying oh! the phone's not well. Gradually I myself forgot that it was not well for carrying, not for other things. My cousin (who got the phone repaired) had tried to tell me several times that phone is almost okay, tu check toh kar bas tujhe thoda sa repair karana hai jo yahan nahi ho paya [At least check, it’s almost repaired. A few things have remained which I could not get repaired here.] :P Actually I was being careless but it paid, this time it paid well.

I had truly-really-seriously forgotten that though the phone is not a fit for carrying but it can always be used to do some things. And Jesus, those “some things” include, which I realise now, that I could have tuned into FM, or do the recordings that I had to, I could have clicked pictures when I needed to (This has a 5 mp camera, and I kept it in dust and drawers), I could have stored my favorite music. There is a list of I could haves. I am no sadhu sant. On some days I truly cribbed about all this not just to myself but to friends and when after I got to the realization that my phone was alright, I so badly laughed. I even called a friend to tell him the story & laugh and though he listened to me patiently, he just couldn't be without saying," This could have happened only with you :P " (Read the note at the end, you_____). And when today I realised I could have done many things, I couldn't help but smile. And laugh. Over myself and the trick life played.

I truly didn't remember and I truly cribbed but now I am truly-madly-deeply happy it happened. :P :P

You can never really experience something if you go inside for 'experiencing' it. Its only when you are truly immersed in anything or truly living a life with pluses and minuses that are thrown at you, not exactly chosen by you, you can truly experience anything fully. This note (from my diary in which I felt like scribbling when I got my old phone back) truly sums up my situation. Okay, enough being delusional :P

The moment I got the old phone back, other than smiling & laughing & calling, I actually went back to the previous days. The whole year came to me in a flash. Most of it was to remind what made me completely forget the old phone and partly how I lived with Nokia 100. The year was funny (now, because of all this), and a lot better than 2012, a lot more filled and had a lot less empty spaces than 2012 and I am on my way, though I don't really know where I am getting or where I want to be, I know there are lot more steps to be taken (I don't even know what steps) and I hope 2014 will be better. And with a better phone :P ;-)

Nokia 100 has radio in-built. But I did not have headphones. I can make a whole post about why I could not have headphones of Nokia 100 but this time, I would spare you. :P

There is a lot more philosophical stuff and really great realizations happening related to this whole year, most of them directly or indirectly relate to having or not having a phone. There are so many awesome things I did. Phone is a world in itself and a distraction and source of stress too. Let me keep my emotional and awakening-wala stuff to myself and enjoy the humour. ;-)

It could have happened with you only!- These were the wordings of a friend. You ________! How dare you say so! Though you were right :P Only I can be this careless with a gadget like phone. This indeed could have happened only with me. But you don't know the full story. okay? :-/ May be now you know, partly! :P