I was the last person in my house to get a mobile phone simply because Ivalue my space and love being incommunicado. It suited me just fine that I couldn’t be contacted all the time.  However, it wasn’t long before I had to succumb to the pressure of being available  at the other end of the line especially when everyone was using travel time to catch up on gossip, news and information via the cordless, wireless and completely mobile phone. So I chose the cheapest model my argument being that completely lacking the envy factor it would never be stolen. Within days, the evil eye cast its gaze on it and the screen developed a crack making the phone even less desirable. I was happy with this phone for several years till finally I found that the replacement battery was not made any more since the model was long since phased out…. This time round there were several cast off models lying at home so I picked one of them up and used it till it died a natural death. Thus for the past several years, I have been connected albeit with a basic phone. This suited me fine as I had absolutely no use for any of the fancy features: the ear phones didn’t stick in my ears so I couldn’t  listen to the radio; the screen was so small that taking photos was pointless; I had no business to conduct so I didn’t need to email anyone or calculate numbers or maintain a schedule of “things to do”. Thus I was one of the few people who used a mobile phone purely for what it was meant to be used for primarily – call someone in an emergency.

But all that changed when Wow Dinga came into my life. Suddenly I realised that I should be one of those hip grannies who whipped out a smart phone and proudly showed off pictures of their grandchildren. I actually took a photo of  ” the new man in my life” and proudly showed him off to my friends only to meet with their incredulous cries of ” Oh My God! Just look at that!” If you thought they were referring to Wow Dinga, you’ve got that wrong. They were referring to my mobile phone which was all of two years old ( at least in my possession). While it didn’t bother me too much, it completely offended Hubby Dear who was personally affronted by this reaction to my phone. So he took it upon himself to personally get me a suitable phone.

Last Saturday he and Anna Shetty went out in the rain and came back with a Samsung Galaxy Young a sleek, smart phone that did it all without being so large that it covered my face. Since then I’ve been trying to figure out how it works. I realised that apart from getting slimmer and slicker, the phones also come without old fashioned manuals. I had no option but to let Anna Shetty take the lead in deciphering how to get my phone working. In between feeds she transferred some numbers from my old phone onto the new and then left me to my own devices to decipher the various icons, functions and movements.

The first time I got an incoming call I didn’t know how to answer it so I preferred to disconnect and call back.That was after I figured out that the strange ring tone was coming from my phone! But what I really find hard to come to terms with is the size of the keys on the touch screen. They are so tiny and close together that I often have to press several times before I get the right letter. Perhaps I will have to lose weight so that my fingers are slim enough to hit the right key or then file a nail to a point so that I make no mistake!

p.s. I was so disheartened with my “progress”  or rather lack of it that I indulged in my next favourite activity net surfing and came upon this blog……….

.http://babafoodananda.blogspot.in/2013/07/embarrassingly-easy-nutella-coffee.html

This is one dessert I’m definitely going to try.