Girl About Town

Oh my god, is it just me, or is everyone thoroughly bored by the iPhone? Thefirst time I saw it was when a US-returned friend in town for a holiday, proudlyflashed it at me. "Isn't it lovely?" he asked and I, open-mouthed, extending onefinger to gingerly touch it, agreed whole heartedly. Only, he couldn't use it inBombay--the service provider didn't offer international roaming, and since theiPhone could only be used by one service provider, there was no way for him toget a temporary Indian SIM card. Still, the phone was shiny and pretty and hadmany cool features like being able to zoom into a photo just by moving yourthumb and index finger over the screen.

iPhone two was later. By this time, the unlocking code was fairly popular anda few people in the city were picking up the phone to use like any other. Iadmired the second one I saw. Still so shiny! Still so very cool!

By the time I saw my third iPhone, I was quite blasé about it. So, it had anmp3 player and a camera? Big deal. My phone had that too. It had an excellentinterface, that's for certain, but I'm used to my phone's keypad. And the ownertold me he could only sync it with a Mac computer. Plus, he couldn't Bluetoothanything to me, or any other phone except an iPhone. Right. Perhaps it was sourgrapes, but suddenly, my desire for this, the latest of cellphone models, waswaning.

I've always been a phone junkie. When I was nineteen, I got my first phone,as a birthday present. This was back in the day when incoming calls still costmoney and almost everyone had that old Nokia model, the one that was heavy andhad an antenna. I got a Motorola Talkabout, a purple phone (which they stoppedmaking about three months after I got mine) and I loved it. Cellphones had justabout become popular, so all my friends had phones too. It was the beginning ofa long addiction for all of us. We pulled it out between classes to see if wehad any new messages, we played Snake obsessively on the tiny screens, and wecould no longer avoid our parents if we broke curfew. For better or for worse,we all had long electronic leashes.

My next phone was one I bought myself, a Nokia this time, one where I couldchange the cover and did, making it a shiny blue transparent one. This year, wewere all about the ring-tones, composing them, getting them off each other asmessages. And incoming calls became free, so late night phone conversations andmessages were how we conducted our romances. I still hadn't got to the stagewhere my phone and I were one being, but I was getting there fast.

When I began working, straight after college, I realized that my phone wasinvaluable. I never switched it off. I got calls all the time. I bought a hands-freeand used it. I was always available, always on call and my phone was next to mewhen I slept, when I ate and sometimes, I even took it into the bathroom.

Fancy phones only came into my life much later, after my addiction wasestablished, after I had that strange thing called missing cellphone syndromewhere you can feel your phone vibrating even if it's not. This was a MotoRazr,very sexy, and my first camera phone, so I went a little berserk with it. Onlyto have it stolen a couple of months later. My phones were now good enough to bestolen, apparently.

My phone right now is a clamshell, a Nokia model, with this very cool buttonthat you press to flip it open. I was contemplating getting myself something newfor the new year when I stopped and shook my head at myself. I don't really needthe iPhone. I don't really need my fancy phone with all its gadgets either. Thedays when even the fact that I could get messages sent to me would excite meseem so far away.

When did we start taking technology for granted? And does this mean we willnever feel the miracle that is a 1000 songs on a gizmo the size of a creditcard, the fact that you can be on your laptop while in your car, the fact thatyour mobile phone can actually take your picture and still be pretty tiny, thefact that everything is getting smaller and more streamlined and efficient.Miracles, all of them, daily miracles, and next time, I'm going to stop andnotice.