Friday, July 20, 2007

Waiting for her call

(Something inspired by Ammani's Short Tales, of which I am a regular reader.)

So you are there right under the bedspread covered up to your head, facing the cellphone in the dark. "Shall I put the fan off?", your mother asks. "No, just that I want the breeze and don't want to feel the cold as well.", you reply. Little does she realize how sultry it is inside. But you know after some thorough analysis that this is the thinnest bedspread that would not allow the cellphone backlight to pass through. Putting on the ring tone is out of question. That leaves you with just the vibrator and the backlight to tell you about any calls or sms's. To complicate issues, your cell phone doesn't vibrate when it is charging. Some design issue, the manual says. And the failing battery means you keep charging it frequently lest you miss out on that call you have been enduring all this for.

It's a couple of hours now. "Is she up to problems with her parents?" "Has she left the phone for charging and gone out somewhere?" "Has she got too tired and slept off early?" A million questions intersperse your thoughts. Sometimes accompanied by a split-second introspection of why you are in such a state. Managing a cell phone with such constraints and a failing battery on silent mode isn't all that easy. You keep charging it whenever you are on your laptop, with the cellphone on the hinge, as the backlight is easy to notice. Just that when the call comes, you have to slip it into your pocket and pretend that either you are sleepy and hence have to get into the blanket, or you need to take a leak. Sometimes you can't slip it in, and announcing on the cell phone that the signal is weak and moving out to a more private place helps. When you are roaming about in the house, its in your pant pocket. But over time you have lost a bit of confidence over how sensitive you are to that vibrator. Sometimes, the phone moves to the shirt pocket. Otherwise, you get reminded of all the horror stories about the medical impact of doing such a thing. That is when just putting your hand in your pant pocket helps you make sure. When you sleep, the pant pocket is way too open and the cellphone falls off. So you place it in your belly and tuck in your shirt so that it stays there. Of course, the keypad needs to be locked since you could roll over.

But that's when you are done with a call, and you are going to sleep, but it's just that you don't want to miss it in case she gets to call later, or early in the morning. Till then, its right in your hand, either with the charger on, when you keep looking for the backlight, or without it, when the charge is good enough, and you can put it for charging when you are talking. If its the latter, you at least get to cozy up a bit. But for now, that's not the case. And you are left thinking about all this with no signs of sleep coming. With a blue tinge, your cellphone lights up. So does your face.