Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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Being teleported to a different time without my laptop, phone, or TV felt good The other day I ran into a perfect storm. The friend I’m staying with in London left for a long trip to India early that morning. Half awake, with the Uber growling outside, he grabbed my computer charger instead of his own. This meant I was hors de combat as far as my laptop was concerned, at least till I sorted out whether to buy a new charger or borrow someone’s spare wire. I called another friend, told her of my quandary, and she cheerfully suggested we meet in Central London and generally do tafri. Having left the house and caught a bus, I realised that my mobile phone battery was at three per cent. I called my pal to let her know this and she told me she was in the same situation — her phone was also on its last legs. We agreed to meet in front of a store on Oxford Street at a certain time regardless of our phones. When I got to the rendezvous there was no sign of my friend. I waited for about 40 minutes and then decided something had gone wrong and walked away. I knew there were phone shops where you could go in and charge your phone but I couldn’t see any nearby and decided I would just do without my phone. Transported to the past Suddenly, I was teleported to a different time. Till I gave in to the mobile phone persuasion just past 40, I had made all my appointments via landline. Many of you may never have experienced this kind of thing but it went like this: you called a friend, or they called you, and you agreed to meet somewhere. You then went there and waited, or they did, looking around to try and spot each other. You people-watched, you noted crowd patterns, you noticed odd behaviour, overheard conversations, noticed which shops were attracting what sort of customers, which ones were the most popular — stuff like that. If you or your friend missed the appointment, your level of annoyance (save in the case of repeat offenders) was minimal – anyone could fall victim to unforeseen circumstances and there was no way to let the other party know, so what to do? My rickshaw broke down, my aunt landed up just as I was leaving, I called you but you’d already left your house were among the acceptable reasons for keeping someone waiting or ditching them.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/a-day-in-the-digital-desert/article25018367.ece
