20 Minutes without My Phone

“OMG! I left my phone in his bag.” My very first thought, the moment I crossed the road. I turned back to look for him. Of course he was gone. I was cursing the moment when I slipped my mobile in my husband’s bag while travelling from home to the bus stop, thinking that I will take it out once we reach.

And suddenly everything around me started looking so big and over-powering. The buses, the buildings, the cars, the crowd, the heavy noise of traffic- everything seemed to assume life like size. The world was an urban jungle and I was standing in the midst of it with no connection to my near and dear ones. Such is the influence of mobile phones on our generation.

In the past,  people used to venture out on far away lands, travelling to nations far and wide with only the written word or once in a few days telephone call in the name of connectivity. And now in this day and time, I couldn’t bring myself to travel 10 kms to my office without phone.

One thing I was sure of that my husband is unaware that he has got it in his bag.  Reaching out to him was another challenge. Because God bless the flood of mobile phones which has completely drowned in itself, the thing called a Phonebooth. I think they are an extinct species especially in the big cities. The last hope I had was explaining  my situation to somebody and calling from their cellphone.

With this thought in mind, I went to a nearby mall. There weren’t many people at that time of the  morning. I saw a middle-aged lady sitting and most probably waiting for someone. I don’t know why but I had an instinct that this attempt was gonna fail. I asked her politely for her phone and her face changed at the moment. (Gosh, the mistrust old people have on the youth). She said she was expecting an important call herself so she couldn’t. Seeing that my instincts have proven correct, I decided to leave her alone.

Luckily I saw a lady of probably 26-27 years of age. She allowed me to use her phone though only after asking a lot of questions. But my problem was not to end there. Whatever be the reason, but I was unable to call from that phone. Maybe the network issue. Nonetheless I thanked her and started thinking of the next option.

I asked a few security personnel there for their phones but they said that they were not allowed to carry phones. One of them said that he does have the phone but he can’t take it out because he doesn’t want to be penalized in any manner. I didn’t say anything to him because I couldn’t have him risk his job for me. I stood there clueless not knowing what to do when the same person came to me and handed over his phone to me saying that I could make the call but I have to be extra careful while handing him back the phone or rather just keep it at the baggage counter on the side and he will take it.  I thanked him a lot from the bottom of my heart.

As I held his phone in my hands, a new reality hit me. I did not remember my husband’s number.

You see I had been married for hardly a year at the time. And owing to the fact that how lazy we have become in memorizing telephone numbers since the advent of mobile phones, I did not know his mobile number. But luckily I remembered my mom’s number (might have been the only number I knew by heart) at the time. I called her from the security guard’s number and explained the events of the morning.

She called my husband who came all the way back to give my mobile phone to me. As I resumed my journey to my office, I was recounting the mixed feelings of the morning and thanking the guard who helped me.

I thought, “How it is that people who have less, always have more to give…”

Also don’t forget to check out my fun take on How I learnt to cook as a newly married girl.