Dial M for Manners

This one is for you if you've made it something of a habit to call a friend and whisper sweetnothings as you careen down a crowded highway...

This one is for you if you8217;ve made it something of a habit to call a friend and whisper sweetnothings as you careen down a crowded highway at 80 kmph. Or allow your cellphone to jangle everybody8217;s nerves just as Hritik Roshan reaches for his gun in a neighbourhood multiplex. Well, time is running out for the likes of you folks. Shape up or ship out, is the message that is now sought to be conveyed to mobile phone users everywhere by an entity no less than a well-known manufacturer of mobile phones. For the next four months, mobile phone users will be zapped by ads in magazines, movie shorts and radio spots, requesting people to display more sensitivity to their fellows on planet earth in their deployment of that nifty intruder that goes tring-tring in handbags and suit pockets at the most unlikely moments.

There8217;s no denying that the mobile phone has transformed the way people communicate with each other and not just People Like Us ensconced in urban enclaves. Farmers in Jalandhar and toothpaste salesmen in the Kon-kan, garment manufacturers in Salem and caterers in Bhubaneshwar, they all court connectivity. Just the other day came the observation that teenagers smoke less today because they are so busy chattering away into their mobile phones, which now serve as a handy substitute for the cigarette as a symbol of the adult world. The figures bear out this great wiring of the universe.

The number of subscribers now at 0.5 billion is soon expected to double. Some even claim that one out of every six people in the world will be connected by the year 2003. So rapid is this rise India8217;s subscription base is presently at 2.6 million, and growing that the world has not even been able to get its act together about what constitutes proper cellphone manners.

Well, as a quick ready reckoner to this existential crisis, two aspects present themselves immediately. First, how dangerous is cellphone addiction? Second, how intrusive is it? In the first category, is the Dangerous Driver, cited in the opening lines of this editorial. These specimens are a hazard, not just to themselves, but to fellow motorists and pedestrians as well.

Talking into a mobile phone while driving is now a proclaimed offence everywhere and rightly so. It is safety concerns, too, that prompt airline authorities to regulate the use of the mobile phone while on board an aircraft, and most people recognise this and abide by the norms set. It is in recognising the intrusive nature of this form of social communication that most Indians fail the test. On the contrary, since the cellphone is still relatively a new phenomenon in this country and is regarded as something of a status symbol, many quite oblivious to the angry glares all around them still wallow in the loud ring of their gadgets and think nothing of conducting conversations on top of their voices in the most public of places. It is creatures such as these who need this salutary lesson in cellphone etiquette. Be connected, by all means, but don8217;t forget simple courtesies in the process.