I guess it’s
time for me to tell you guys, about my relationship with the gadgets. No, not
like James Bond’s stuff or something like that. But you know, less smart: the
cell phones. I have
evolved a lot over the time in the field with the so-called ‘Cell phones’. To
tell from the scratch, I have to start from the first phone that we ever owned.
My Mom’s
sister, who now lives in Chennai, gave us a phone as we were headed to
Ahmedabad because of my dad’s freaking Bank transfer. See, this phone was not
something that we are using these days. Well, you remember the type of phones
that you might have seen in old movies where there would be an Antenna on the
top that receives the signals of the caller and gives us the voice.
This phone
that she gave us was previously used by my Cousin. At that time, he was in his
high schooling or something. I was too little then, so I don’t know whether I
remember correctly. But he definitely was in school. It’s kind of a badass to own
a damn phone when you are in school at that time. It’s like “whatever” right
now, given the fact that nowadays even a new-born baby uses an iPhone. Not a
Phone….. The iPhone (which costs a ton.) I didn’t even know what a touch screen
what until I was in my 9th grade or so. I am going way off-topic. Well, coming
back. It was a phone from the company BPL. I don’t know whether people even
know about that company now or not. But it was a big firm at that time which
met its disastrous downfall few years back.
The phone
weighed more like a brick. Can say it weighed around 2 kg literally. I use
bricks to do my Dumbbell curls for exercising. At that time, we had to talk to
people with a thing that was that heavy. No doubt my dad had nice biceps. That
was our first phone. The
bigger proliferation of cell phone when I was in my 8th grade when my Dad
bought a phone that is vernacularly called “The China Phone” or the “Korean
Set”. Well, it had all the features that a branded phone has but in a clumsy and
a not-so-decent way. But for a person who doesn’t care about the quality or
features of the phone, it really isn’t a problem. But when a guy who uses a
branded mobile and he sees someone using this kind of phone, surely he’ll see
him like an alien or something. That’s the fact. It’s become like this.
The highlight
was that the phone was a Touch Screen. By that I mean, a very crappy touch
screen. It had the ripped off version of Apple’s lock screen (which I didn’t
know back then) and have been impressed by the concept of this touch screen. It
didn’t matter to me back then. Because, I never had to contact people and never
required the necessity of having a phone. If I needed to contact someone so
badly, we had a Landline at home. But my friends did have personal phones for
them just not me. Yes…. I was the technologically-challenged guy then.
After that, my
dad changed a couple of phones. Yep, we gave up the China one. Yay! And this
time, the black and white phones to the newly famous “Colour Phones.” We then
began using the new phone where I was introduced to some new stuff such as the
internet over the phone. I was active in the website called Facebook when I was
using that phone only.
I did not own
a personal phone until I completed my high schooling. During my high schooling,
I used my Dad’s phone quite a while as Dad doesn’t use much of calls or
messages. I used to send way too ‘Forward’ messages to people. It was at that
time when the SMS limit was not 100 per day. Aircel gave us 10K messages for a
month for just 36 bucks. 10,000 is freaking hefty for even those who text every
minute. I just forwarded messages to people just to finish off the SMSes given
for that month. Then, I realized. No one gives a shit about forwards and I was
the one sending those forwards… so that makes me…you know what. Then due
course, I hated forwarding messages and now, I don’t forward at all.
Up until I
finished my high schooling, I have never pictured myself having a cell phone in
the very near future. But I did get to own a phone on my own. In my Public
Holidays, dad had given me permission to get me a phone. Well, when I decide
something, I take literally a very long time. This stupid ‘dilemma’ comes in
between and inhibits me from sticking to a decision. That’s why it took me a
hell lot of time to select a phone. Thank duck we had internet connectivity in
our home back then. If not, I’d still have bought a China Phone.
Finally, after
hours and hours of searching over the internet, I found the one; well, the to-be-chosen
one. The Motorola Backflip MB300. It was an Android phone with the version 1.5
(Cupcake) in it. No, the phone did not have cupcake in it. The android version
was called the Cup Cake. Grow Up, man!
Android was very new at that time. The phone cost me like 15000 bucks which was
hell lot. But you know what my dad did when I told him on the phone standing in
the phone shop looking at the phone that I was about to buy? He just said “15K
huh? Okay. Get it if you like it”. That’s the generosity of my Father. Not
everyone gets a cool dad as mine.
But the phone
lasted only a couple years with me as it broke down mid-way during the second
year. See, Motorola was a very big company in the US. The main drawback of that
company in India was that they didn’t have as many Service centers to provide
services to the consumers of India. I don’t know what was wrong with that
phone, but it went off one fine day when everything was just normal the
previous day. I took it to every single Service centre hoping to get it fixed
but it was of no use. Also the news was that due to loss incurred by Motorola,
thy decided to close the company and all its related service centers. So, if I
wanted my phone to be good then, I should act quickly.
But you know,
Universe decides everything for us. It’s decision being, me getting separated
from my Motorola. It may seem childish that I was worrying over a phone but I
loved it more than anything else. So… *sniff* yeah… *sniff* I am not crying.
Okay, moving on.
When doctors
of the Cell-phone world told me that there’s no other go for the Motorola to be
fixed, I had to get a new phone. Now that I have broken (it broke and people
blame me for) my phone, another costly phone would not be there as an option. I
knew that and I decided to get the least smart phone which could just make
calls and send messages and doesn’t support any external memory cards or
support songs or whatsoever. If that’s the case, everyone knows that Nokia is
the best option to choose. Yes, I bought a new Nokia 1616 which just supports
FM and I never really heard songs from the FM. Seriously. That phone has been
my awesome friend till date.
The difference
having a phone like a "Smartphone" and "ordinary" phone is
that the people owning a Smartphone usually get sick using their phone and
finally feel that basic phone is what they actually need. On the contrary, the
people using the ordinary phone yearn to have a camera or a music player in
theirs. It's always greener on the other side. Anyhow even I've had incidents
like this.
So I used this
basic Nokia 1616 for like two straight years and finally decided to get myself
a new phone and that too, a smart one. There began my search for the next
buddy/bro/friend. Basically when I said I wanna buy a new phone my dad's first
answer was "Sure". It was kind of spontaneous without any
hesitations. Now that I have got a step to proceed, I had to select the phone
that I needed to buy. That was the big thing to do. When I previously bought
the Motorola Back flip, it went bad. People still think that's my fault or
something. But what can I do to stop a cell phone tragedy that was to happen??
I was certainly not a Phone Super Hero. Anyways people started asking me to be
careful with the phone that I buy next. So I had to be cautious this time.
When you want
to buy something, there is this whom you ou ask first. GOOGLE. I asked it. And
found out plenty of suggestions for my price range. So I began ruling out the
not-so-impressive phones from the search results with more and more filters
that matched my specs. The fact that runs the human mind sometimes can think in
mysterious ways. When more people have the same of something, you clearly start
developing hatred for that thing. Be it a Book, a phone, a pen, underwear... whatever.
It was this that took place in my case. I started hating Samsung for that. I'd
prefer pure Android anyhow. Then the user interfaces if other companies also
didn't quite impress me per se. be it the Sony or the HTC.
HTC, at times
looked pretty good to me. But when I see the specs and proceed to accept with
the price range and all, there comes this one thing that I hate even more. The
concept of Dual SIM. This was in so many if the phones that I thought was
better which lead to me not buying.
My search for
the phone was nearly for like two months or so. I had to choose the best for
me. I wanted to feel the exact same of what I felt with the previous Motorola.
It was when my mind thought why don't you go for a Windows phone? But
sources who used Windows phones at that time didn't give me fruitful results
that I expected. Windows phones didn't support as many apps as iPhone or the
Android. You only get the minimum of customization to your phone. I didn't like
the sound of that. I'd lost the mind of buying the windows phone on hearing that
itself.
After hours
and hours of sitting in front of the computer, I came to conclusion of two
final phones Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Google Nexus 4. Back when I bought
Motorola Backflip itself I was intimidated to buy a Nexus. But it was not introduced
in India at that time. But now I had Nexus 4 that was within my budget. The
problem with selecting the Phone from S3 and Nexus 4 was I hated S3. That alone
was the only phone that had all the specs I needed and also was in my budget
cover. The other drawback from the other phone Nexus 4 was that, it was a
unibody phone. If the battery dies, phone dies along with it. There's nothing
we can do to stop it. But Samsung had a removable battery and had plenty of
service centers all around.
And I hate the
Touch Wiz. My mind was more than just a monkey at that time. An orangutan
maybe. Then, I thought. Even iPhone users go with the Unibody design. Why
couldn’t I too? Okay. So, I talked to my mind.
(Italicized sentences are my
mind’s dialogues)
Okay, Guhan. You sure about this?
“Yeah, I think so. There aren’t
many phones that come with my expected specs, now, do they?”
You think so? You think so? You’re gonna put in a big
amount in this. You can’t risk that.
“I know that but, Nexus is
awesome. It has pure Android. I don’t think no other phones give me that. I am
putting my foot down. I’m getting the Nexus 4. I don’t think I can’t take this
ball game that my mind plays. It kills me inside”
Okay. Get the Nexus. Rock on. *thumbs up*
After a quality conversation with
myself (stupid talk-to-myself thing), I decided to land on the Nexus 4. So you
think it ends here and I get the phone and everything goes “Happily ever
after”. Freaking NO!
Here’s where the real Story
starts. You know that, in life, things go wrong at times. But for me, it’s not
at times. It is everytime. That happened with the phone too.
When I decided
that I wanna get Nexus as the next phone, I wanted to get a Cover for the phone
as it was mentioned to be vulnerable to falls. Plus, I wanted an awesome
headphone. That had to be a cool company. And Skull Candy came along the way.
It was an extremely super-cool headphone brand. So, while ordering the phone I
made sure that I got these too.
There were totally 4 attempts.
Here you go. One. By. One.
Attempt #1
My dad had
given me the money required to buy the phone. All I had to do was to order the
phone. So, when I decided to get it online, I searched for the lowest price
available (like everyone). And I found eBay to have the
lowest prices among the leading online retailers. I ordered it in eBay along
with Skull Candy headphone and a Nexus 4 Case from Flipkart. So within two
days’ time, Skull candy arrived. I was at Chidambaram (I ordered it to my home
address, Karaikal). My brother called and told me that it has come. And also
the Case too in 2 or three days.
Then started
the big WAIT. Days rolled and rolled. No word on the phone. I’ll constantly
check my mail to get myself updated on what the word on the phone is. After a
long period of like, 20 days or so, they said that they didn’t have enough
stocks to give the customers and they didn’t like us to wait any longer. So,
they refunded me with the money I paid them.
THAT’S 1-0
(Universe-Guhan)
While this was
happening, I had already told my friends (and everyone I knew for I am a
Blabbermouth) that I had ordered a phone and it will be with me any soon. But
since the order failed to reach me, I had to tell them that whole problem from
the scratch.
This was a pretty big problem.
You can’t just go around and tell a dozen of people the same story over and
over again. Yeah, you’ll understand why. Continue reading..
Attempt #2
My mind then
started thinking “Is the universe making this in order to stop me from buying a
mobile or something? Did I deserve more or I didn’t deserve the phone?”
The second time, I lost hopes on this eBay website
as they disappointed me with my first order. So, I chose Snapdeal this time.
They had the second lowest price on the internet. See, I had money in two ATM
cards. The first order that I placed was from one card. The refund usually
takes nearly 15 days or so for its coming back. When I had ordered the phone
with my first card, the second card still had the money. Before the refund came
back to the first card, I ordered for the Second time with my other card.
So, yeah. Good
that I had money in two cards. See, after this a fortnight went on I guess. It
was at that time that Nexus was on hot sale everywhere that the shops were
going out of stock sooner and sooner. By the time, I placed the order in
Snapdeal the stock went off somehow (Might as well been the work of the
Universe).
Same thing
happened here too. I didn’t get my order. They let me wait for 15 freaking days
and they tell me that they don’t have stock. The thing that pissed me off this
time with this Snapdeal is that, after I ordered in eBay and didn’t get the
product, I called Snapdeal customer support and told them what had happened
with my previous purchase and asked them whether they really had the phone in
stock. Apparently, the customer support guys know nothing of the stock
availability and they give an answer “Yes, sir. There’ll definitely be Stock
and it’ll reach you in 2-3 Business days.”
My brains and
heart knew that I wasn’t going to get the phone this time too. And as per my
brains and heart thought, I didn’t get the phone. This time, too, there wasn’t
enough stock. Then why the hell do you put “IN STOCK” sign on the website when
you don’t have the products “IN STOCK”??
I was upset,
again. A tragedy (more like a mild one) for the second time kind of made me sad
you know. So, by now, the refund for the other order came back with this card’s
money being in the hands of the owners or whomsoever of the Snapdeal Company.
My parents
were really frustrated at this point. They really aren’t supportive of buying a
phone online. They asked to get one in the stores. The thing I chose online
shopping was that the price was like 2K bucks lesser. Parents said “Don’t look
for just 2K bucks, just get it in stores.” But then, there was again another
problem. Nexus was not available on the stores but the Google play website.
So, it had to be online or it had to be another phone. Another phone
would never have been my option. Online it was, decided.
THAT’S 2-0 Universe
And yet again,
I had to tell my friends that I ordered but the phone didn’t come. The same
whole similar story that I told them the last time. Some seemed to start
frowning at me as if I stole the money and I was telling them “stories” that
the order couldn’t be processed. It was getting awkward then.
Attempt #3
So, now I had
two Debit Cards. One card that had money and another card did not any money. I
had to order the phone once again. So, I chose to use the card with the money
in it (well, that’s the only option now, isn’t it?)My brother kept telling me
that I should order in Flipkart so that the order would reach for sure. But the
cost was 1000 bucks more than what was available in the online stores and the
Maximum Retail Price (MRP, in short).
This was the
third time and it has already become a Mock-thing for everyone around me. When
I say to someone that I was going to order something online, they would say
that I will just get the refund and not the product. Yeah, well after what I’ve
been through they are bound to make these kinds of jokes.
This time, I
chose the online store, Amazon. This was the only website that, at this time,
had the lowest price. And to my surprise, when I ordered from this website I
actually got the phone. My joy knew no bounds as it was something to be
cherished for sure.
The phone was
ordered to my home address, Karaikal. It was my brother who received the
parcel. I even let him open the phone and turn it on (which is a big thing,
believe me). So, you think, it’s over now. No, it isn’t. As my brother uses
everything in the phone and tells me that the phone’s awesome and everything,
there’s one big glitch in it. The phone’s front camera was not working.
Darrrrn!!!
It was pretty
freaking frustrating, really. Why did have to be me? Why did I have to face
everything? But I thought
maybe an update would do the job by clearing it. I can’t just rely on it you
know. What if the update didn’t fix it? I can’t risk that. And while this
process was going, Google released Nexus 5. Say whaaaaat?
Yeah, they
released a whole new phone and I am still trying to buy this Nexus 4. They
introduced Android Kitkat in this phone and I thought maybe I will fix to that.
But no, the android kitkat update was freaking awful in the Nexus 4. Then
people advised me that, “why don’t you just buy a Nexus 5 then?” It seemed
legit though.
It was quite
expensive you see given the budget that I was doing for this phone initially
being too damn high. So, what was I talking about?? Yeah, the camera was
faulty. I returned the phone and got myself a refund. Now the other card had
the already refunded money from the second attempt and now this one was empty.
Hell of a Round-about game it was.
THAT’S 3-0, Mr. Universe
Attempt #4
I decided that
if I don’t get the phone at least now, I am never getting one ever. Ever again.
The only mistake I did was I stupidly, blindly, non-sensically, moronically and
other-such-words-that-mean-I-was-stupid-ly, ordered it again on ebay. This was
till now the worst move I’ve ever made.
I ordered (as the price was freaking low) in eBay and what happened this time
was that, some freak from the Courier Company STOLE IT!!!! Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why ME?
Universe, you
know, I am just sick of this. Why would you do such a thing to me? All I wanted
was to have a Phone, just like everybody else. Why do you bother me so much?
This is where the go-back-and-forth-ball game started. I contact the bluedart
couriers asking for a solution. They repeatedly kept saying that they are
trying to retrieve the product and help me in the process. And when time went by,
(by this I mean, a really lengthy-time went by) they asked me to contact ebay
for the process.
When I always
call up the guys in the eBay company, they kept telling me that they are not
properly updated on the issue (why the hell do you have computers then?) I was
so close to being a serial killer. I almost was raging with fury of anger. My
mom on the other hand kept telling me that I lost the money to the company
whereas I argue that they wouldn’t do such a thing to their customer. But they
quite didn’t understand what was going through my mind.
I raised a
“Guarantee claim” there in eBay and they didn’t process it for 45 days. (I
mean, come on. Seriously?) I nearly had no idea what I was going to do. I even
started to feel guilty that I had just lost money to people on the internet
(this was because my mom was telling me that I had lost).
Then, I had a
routine thing that I did once in two days. Call the Customer Support
Executives. All they say is “We’ll call you back in exactly 48 hours sir” “Sir,
our floor manager Mr. Ashir Gupta will call and fill in with your details in 48
hours.” But there’ll be no calls or mails from their side. I get even madder. I
call them back and ask for this Floor Manager but still no proper solution.
Then finally
one day, I was sitting with my friend Raj Kumar (Dindugal) eating a Ladoo given
by my friend Rajyalakshmi on the terrace where I was making the call just like every
day. I was on a big hold when suddenly I was answered by a Female
representative. I thought “They are gonna do the same this time too” and was
very casual about it, you know. But while I was on the hold, listening to the
hold-music, I got a text. Well, I checked it and it said: YOUR REFUND HAS BEEN
INITIATED AND WILL BE REFUNDED TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IN 5-7 BUSINESS DAYS.
This was the
most romantic text that I have ever received. I wouldn’t have been happier even
if I had got a text from 100 girls saying “Rajaguhan, I LOVE YOU!” But this text
made my heart light and I literally jumped up and down on the terrace. The
female representative connected again while I was smiling my mouth out and all
I asked was “Is it really refunding now?” And I couldn’t even let her
talk anymore and I continued “What’s your name? Yeah, what’s your name?” She
said that her name was Preethi.
I responded by saying, “Thank you so much Preethi. Wish you a very Happy New
Year” and hung up.
Yeah, it all came down with a
girl named PREETHI.
And that’s 4 for 0, Universe.
So, that was
it. I was getting the money. It might sound dumb in words but this was the most
pathetic time of my life. And in few days, I got my money back.
After
sometime, my dad said, “If you think, this new phone Nexus 5, is good, then buy
that. Don’t bother about the money.” That is my dad. He just wanted me to be
happy.
I did order for a Nexus 5 in Flipkart as Google play didn't support
Indian debit cards per se. Flipkart’s price was 1000 bucks more than MRP
as I told earlier but I ordered anyway. The only available color was White so I
ordered that. Thought it was girlie at first, but it’s not like that. It’s
awesome. What you’ve just
read is like, 60 days of my life. And I am so grateful that I finally got a
phone. Now that the phone’s name is Nexus ‘5’, I beat the Universe in out Ball
Game.
That makes the score 4-5.
Take that, Universe. (Don’t
take it seriously, Mr. Universe. I am just saying it for the blog’s sake. I
have to live for at least 5 decades. I don’t want to make a bad impression)
Anyways, in all seriousness,
thanks for bearing with my words.
