Losing count

Nathan D’souza,a software engineer,says,“It’s confusing at times to remember the long mobile phone numbers of people who are important in your life. Recently on my way back home from a late night party,my bike ran out of fuel,and I couldn’t call anyone for help because my phone was not working. When I finally managed to wheel the bike down to a small shop I couldn’t even call up any of my friends as I didn’t remember anyone’s number off hand.” Luckily,the shopkeeper had a mobile,so D’souza swapped the sim card and managed to call up a friend. “But it was a very unpleasant experience,which which immediately prompted me to buy a watch,in which I could store numbers of some of my friends,so that I am not left struggling in a situation like this,” he adds.

Situations like these,however,can also snowball into comic capers. As Rishabh Rai,a mechanical engineer puts it,“I remember some months back,when one of my friends was speaking to me and asked me for my girlfriend’s number. Since I wasn’t carrying my mobile,I had to blurt out the truth that I didn’t remember it. Before I knew it,the news reached from one end of the city to another,through a chain of friends,that I didn’t know her number by heart.” What followed is something that really cannot be put down in words,says Rai. “These days,to avoid misfortunes of these kinds,I usually carry her number on a slip of paper,so that I can remember it whether I have a phone or not,” he adds.

Incidents like these bring about a lot of unpleasant and sometimes painful experiences for some people. As one of them,Shiv Mehra,a banker says,”Once a business client asked me for my boss’ number. I wasn’t carrying my mobile that evening and it was very embarrassing that I didn’t even know his number. It did not go down very well with my boss,and the next day I got an earful from him.”

Depending on the mobile phone not only puts us in a bad situation if any technical problem arises,it also poses a threat to our security. A report,in public interest,was circulated through emails that we should never save numbers of home or close relatives as this may pose a problem if we lose the phone. In an incident,after a person lost his cell phone,his relatives started getting threatening calls. So this increases the risk of misuse of numbers. Experts,however say that it doesn’t harm the memory power of the person. But they don’t deny the fact that it increases the dependency and may lead to nomophobia.