It is a duck. Take aim and shoot. That what these pickpockets have done. Taken me for a sitting duck. God knows how many cell phones I have lost to them. Ofcourse I know how many! Now I will not divulge the number of phones I have…err…shared with this bunch. I would be hurting the sentiments of some people, you know, if I did.
These pickpockets are people, just like you and me. Regular people trying to make a living. Why are they attracted towards ma bling is anybody’s guess really. Now, this very good friend of mine got an iPhone recently. And hold your horses! He still has it, fingers crossed! But you know, there’s always this look on the face of people (including myself, once upon a time) who just got or have one of these fancy handsets. Always those lines of worry on their forehead. They put in a lot of money for this piece of junk or got someone else to burn a hole in their pocket. Either way, there is a lot of money at stake. You can’t afford to see a lil scratch here or there…or worse, see thieving good for nothings make off with it. And when something like that happens, a lot of things come in perspective. Makes you think. Makes you admire the talent of that guy. Really, they’re pretty smooth. Ask me, I’m a veteran. Also makes you wonder, why did I ever get that phone?! MP3 player, Radio and a gazillion megapixels camera?! Common! They’re just gimmicks!
The basic functions of a cell phone are to make/receive calls, SMS and most important of all-to protect itself. Yes, you heard it right- to protect itself. From physical damage and even more importantly, from these God damned pickpockets. You want to listen to music on the go? Get yourself an MP3 player. You want to take pictures on the go? Get yourself a camera, they aren’t as big as they used to be anyway. What else? Internet? Learn to be more patient, wait to get home/office. Or just get a laptop with a datacard or something. Whatever! My point is, God made mobile phones so that people can keep in touch, wherever, whenever. But we just had to tinker with it, just like everything else, didn’t we?! We just had to stuff them with endless functions and possibilities. And what happened? Half of these funky cell phone owners don’t know how to operate their own phones! The others, who do know, are just a mix of wannabes and nerds. Believe me, I’ve been there!
A real person, as per me, uses his handset to make/receive a call and exchange text messages. The way it was meant to be. They really don’t have the time to fool around. Because this fooling around is costing us a lot of money! Phones, they just keep getting more expensive! God damn it, they have phone insurance now! What for? For an instrument which was just meant for simple communication!
Phones these days have the technology to launch inter-continental missiles. True story. They can even land un-manned spaceships on the Moon. Very soon they’ll even cook your dinner and do your laundry. Yeah right. They can do all this but they can’t protect themselves! If you drop your phone, it’s your fault. If you were careless enough to lose it someplace or to someone, it’s that thieving guys fault! Agreed? So why can’t they build a phone which can protect itself? ’cause if they did, no cell phone would ever get displaced and they- the Nokias, Sony Erriccsons, Apples and BlackBerrys would have to wait for you to repeatedly drop your phone until you couldn’t tell one piece from the other. Now that would be bad for their business. So they’ll give every other function under the tree, except a phone which can protect itself. Something which could throw laserbeams or balls of fire at the intruder!
Naah, that aunt gonna happen. Ever. And I figured all this out just yesterday. But subconsciously I had known this for quite some time. That why I got the most basic Nokia handset available in the market. Rs.1300 for a phone which has its basic features, endless battery backup and a torch too! One more thing I got with it and that was peace of mind! Really isn’t a bother for something which you could buy just for a lil over a grand. If I lose it, I could always get another one, without worrying about the monthly budget. And trust me, no self-respecting pickpocket will go for my phone. No sir, they won’t. And if someone does, he/she (there are female pickpockets too) would be the sorriest human being ever. Enough said. Peace.
March 8, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Well, I too have been a ‘shikar’ of these rooks. But in my case the attacker was far from smooth. I was travelling on the foot-board of the train. It was around 11 p.m. between Mahim and Matunga. There were no track lights so it was pitch dark. As I was busy reading a message, the f***** was hanging from a light post just waiting for me to approach and SLAP! Before I could collect myself I had fallen prey to his tactic. I dropped it without reading the complete message (thankfully it costed only Rs.1500)
Apart from the jibes which erupted in my mind I couldn’t stop admiring his creativity. “Necessity is the mother of all inventions…and also creations”