Say What you Like. You Can't Do Without This Thingamajig...

8 October 2009, Thursday (19 Syawal)

Do you still remember the days of gonebys when the only way to contact your friends or loved ones was either through your house phone or the public phone. And it was definitely the public phone that you had turned to, if you were outside and needed to get in touch with someone.

These days, if you use the public phones, you fall under the minority category of the queers and the strange, the bizarre, the outlandish and the eccentric group of people.

In the early 90's, mobile phones were unheard of. Before the advent of mobile phones, a better way of reaching someone who was on the move was via the pager.

But pagers were quite inconvenient as the person being paged needed to go and look for the public phone to return the call.

And along came the mobile hones. It was so revolutionary that it changes the way we communicate.

Can you ever imagine leaving your home without the handphones. What I meant was consciously or knowingly left home without it.

Today, I had left home for my physiotherapy session at HUKM without realising that I had left both my phones at home. I had actually charged both phones earlier. And upon reaching the hospital, I had realised, to my great dismay and horror hat not only had I left the phones, I had not unplugged them from the sockets.

I was frantic. I was like a lost kitten.  My mind raced. I was wondering where the public phones were located so that I could call home.  Believe it or not, the last time I had ever used the public phone was before the advent of mobile phones, way back in the mid 90's.

Oh my God. Where could it be? And as I walked, I saw a row of 3 public phones.  I felt a huge relief.  And as I selected one to use, I felt eyes on me. I felt as though everyone was watching me. I felt so conscious.  I felt so queer, so peculiar and so out of place.

I didn't even know what I was doing. I had just inserted some coins and because like everyone else, had been so used to dialing '0' followed by the hp digits... when using mobile phones, so had done the same and after a short ring, heard a strange voice, that of a woman.

I thought I had dialed the wrong number, only to be told that the number I dialed was for the emergency. Oh My!! I had inserted more coins and this time remembered to drop the '0' and finally managed to get my son to ask him to switch off the two chargers as overcharging will shorten the lifespan of the batteries.

And as I walked to the Physiotherapy Unit, I felt naked. I felt lost.  I felt as though a part of me had been left behind.  I felt quite sick. I felt uncomfortable.  All because I did not have my two constant companion with me, one was a recent gift from my dear hubby, and the other one I had bought at the beginning of this year.

So folks, would you leave home without your mobile phones? If I were to do a survey to gauge a response, I'm pretty sure, the answer would be a resounding NO!

This incident today had taught me a lesson.  Never leave home without my doodad and doohickey. And I realize with a shudder how dependent I am on this little widget, this little thingamajig.....