On the one hand, the mobile phone revolution in India has provided cheap and easy access to the great unwashed. On the other hand, it has also erased the difference between public and private—and obliterated what little courtesy, civility and etiquette was left in the country.
Talking loudly on it (or peering repeatedly at) in the presence of others, even if it disturbs others; not keeping it on silent mode in buses, trains, theatres and concerts; using it recklessly while driving or after landing; forwarding silly messages or downloading loud ringtones, we do it all with a shamelessness that can only be Indian.
The poet and writer Vijay Nambisan in Deccan Herald:
“A friend in Mysore said some years ago the one thing she thanked the mobile phone revolution for was that the men she saw on the street were better behaved. ‘Earlier they could scratch their crotch with one hand and pick their nose with the other,’ she reported. ‘Now with the phone to hold they can do only one of those things’.”
What is your most obnoxious cellphone story?
Photograph: Bureaucrat V.P. Baligar (middle) and home minister V.S. Acharya (right), work their phones while Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh holds forth in Bangalore in this June 2009 file photo (Karnataka Photo News)
Read the full article: Why are we like this only?
Also read:Are cell phone users the most obnoxious humans?
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At least, it’s better than picking your ear or nose?
Tags: Churumuri, Deccan Herald, Jairam Ramesh V.P. Baligar, Karnataka Photo News, KPN, Sans Serif, V.S. Acharya, Vijay Nambisan
27 June 2010 at 7:05 pm
While travelling to Ludhiana from Delhi by train in the coach, I understood how the whole business of export of garment happens, by just listening to one man having a half hour conversation in the loudest voice possible while everyone else was sleeping.
27 June 2010 at 9:55 pm
Are you running out of stories? Or you must be a great believer of “recycling”