-Brian Mendonça
It’s been less than a month since I bought my smart phone
and I am wondering what took me so long to upgrade.
I was diffident of the new technology and firmly believed
that a handset had no business to define the status of my intelligence. Still,
it seemed time was passing us by. We were left out of the loop when things were
happening – not being on WhatsApp. We somewhat admired the infinite ease with
which people massaged their phones and worked wonders. Finally there were no
games like Talking Tom, our kid could play with (and give us some space!).
The first barrier was the price differential. We were used
to shelling out 2k for a phone. 5 was way too pricey. Now the asking rate for a
decent phone was 9.5 upwards. This was a dilemma. Was it worth it? The harsh
light in the mobile store turned me off – they don’t even show you java phones anymore. In a separate display are phones
costing upwards of 1 lac.
What pushed me was that my modest digital camera had failed
me miserably. Several instances of the battery swelling up and rendering it
unusable, left me crippled with no record of the swirl of events. I needed a camera
on the go – especially to support my posts on my blog. A family phone seemed
like a good idea.
Now Queenie looks through my phone when I get back from work
and checks out the offers and sales. We also share the jokes being passed on by
way of WhatsApp at the table when we eat; Dwayne plays his games for a fixed
time; and I stay connected for the occasional call. I use the word ‘occasional’
advisedly because the current features of a smart phone far exceed a phone’s
original function, viz. to speak to someone.
I even found myself at the DevFest2106 of the Goa Android
User Group (GAUG) hosted by Google, at ICG recently. Sessions on ‘Android App
Monetization’ and ‘Ingredients for a Tasty Social Media Gravy’ showed how far
one could push the English language. To a decidedly teenagy crowd, words like
Freemium, soak test, shit rich, and WTM (Women Tech Makers) were lapped up like
the holy grail. And yes there were free pizzas for lunch.
When dad was in hospital, those who wanted to reach out to
his bedside did so by sending music videos of songs like ‘This is my Prayer’ by
Charlie Dicks, and ‘How Great Thou Art’ on whatsapp with little notes like,
‘This one is for dad.’ When I attended
the funeral of our school friend, I sent photos and video recordings to our
school group across the world on WhatsApp and even to the family. The music
video of the Konkani song ‘Mai Ge Dhobitalao’ sung by Andrew Ferrao (Lyrics:
Roque Lazarus) was sent to me on WhatsApp this morning. This is alternate media
at its best – and the technology to support it to boot.
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Published in Gomantak TimesWeekender, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday 20 November 2016. Pix courtesy techgage.com
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