Mobile Misery

Woe is me. I’ve lost my second best friend in all the world, a.k.a. my phone. Don’t ‘pfft’ at me… that phone was the next best thing to RD’s sliced wheel. ‘Twas a super sexy birthday gift from the Doc, and one that I’d been lusting after for quite a while. I still remember how he duped me into selecting it, without realising it was for me. He took me out for a special birthday dinner and kept it wrapped beside our table the whole night, not letting me touch the gift. I had to be patient till we finished dinner and got back into the car to be allowed the chance to eagerly rip off the paper and squeal in glee. I’d been wanting that phone for yonks, and he’d gotten it for me.
Aiyo. Aiyo. I feel all helpless and cry baby now.

Eric (Short for Sony Ericsson) was cruelly plucked from my ownership the day before yesterday. I still have no clue how it happened. Granted, I am the world’s biggest klutz and absent minded owner who would normally be the first person to lose a phone by leaving it somewhere and forgetting about it. Historically, I’ve already left one phone on a trishaw seat and another in a public restroom. However, this time around I did absolutely nothing. The last I remember, I put Eric in my handbag and hopped off to meet Doc for lunch. It was after lunch, when searching for the phone, I discovered it missing. Impossible, right? I mean, I never took it out to make any calls, nor did I go anywhere other than the lunch spot to have dropped/lost it. We looked everywhere. I even searched my car inside out, just in case I’d dropped it into a crack in between seats. Nada.

We tried calling it and found it had been switched off, which can only mean one thing… someone had Eric. In the midst of blaming myself for being stupid enough to lose it I called up the service provider and terminated the connection.

And now I’m miserable.

Why the dickens am I telling you all this and why the dickens do you care? Because, paduan, in the middle of my grieving process, I suddenly had a bit of a corny revelation and wanted to share.

Those of you out there who have lost phones will know what I’m talking about. When you lose something as tiny and inconspicuous in the greater scheme of things as a phone, suddenly life as you know it is turned upside down. It’s like losing a part of you… like a limb or something. You realise with a nasty jolt that the phone was actually a vital chunk of your daily survival and not having it even for a second puts you into heap big doggy doo doo.

Think about it. It’s like breaking up with someone, innit? A phone is something that goes through life with you. It’s there during times of wonderful memories and even helps out by photographing or videoing the precious moment. It’s the catalyst between you and your loved ones, every time you communicate from remote locations. For me, Eric was the go-between to a lot of things. Every morning as I woke up it would show me a sms reminding me that someone loved me. Through the day, people I wanted and didn’t want to talk to would connect with me through Eric. A single loud bleep could put a smile on my face in an instant on the worst of days, because it was a signal to say someone was thinking of me. Every night, the phone would sit patiently next to my ear, helping me tell someone that I loved them and hear them say it back. If it wasn’t for my phone’s access to the web, Facebook wouldn’t have been a possibility during office hours. All my information was in that phone- from bank account details, important dates to remember, favourite songs, personal photos, special smses I’d saved….

And now someone else has access to all that. Someone else is laughing over pictures of my pets’ cutest poses and the Doc’s silly faces, pulled especially to make me laugh whenever I needed a pick-me-up via keypad. Someone else now knows my friends’ names and numbers. Someone else is surfing my saved Facebook page.

Someone else has my exciting birthday gift. Dammit.

And here’s the revelation…. If I can get so darned attached to something as materialistic as a mobile phone and put so much sentimental value into this gift, just imagine what would happen if I ever lost the GIVER.

Whoa.

Food for thought. You’re probably not getting me right now, but I think you will eventually. Especially if you lose your phone.