What is good-looking, has you hooked, and is forever by your side? Nope, try again. It's not your Significant Other — it's your smartphone! Research says that we look at our cell phones every six minutes, almost 150 times a day. Much of it is spent wondering where we are wasting our mobile recharge! Are we a generation that Talks Too Much? Was there life before mobile phones? Does anyone even remember? Let us rewind and take a look at how "phone" behaviour changed down the years.
Call a Friend
No, we are not talking about Amitabh Bachchan's smash hit TV show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'! Long ago, in the pre-KBC era having a phone was a rare - maybe two households in our neighbourhood had the luxury called 'telephone'.
Needless to say, they quickly became shared assets and lending that "special" friend's or neighbour's telephone number to guests and relatives became a matter of pride: " See. I know someone who has a phone!" Remember, too, how quickly we used to try to finish those calls, and the stilted conversations we had to avoid getting embarrassed in someone else's home. Still, haven't we enjoyed the moment of picking that good old phone, just to dial the number in an old fashioned way?
Enter the Wireless Wonder
Soon came the era of the `cell phone. The first versions were clunky, unpretty, and outrageously expensive for their time. But they were a status symbol — and divided the world afresh into haves and have-nots! These were days of raw jealousy and a struggle to survive with self-respect in an emerging , wondrous technology-driven world. And what we thought was fancy was actually way too funny!
Talk Timing Better Than Sachin's Sixers
During the early days of mobile phones, we may not have been as good at timing a sixer as Sachin Tendulkar, but, we were champions at timing our phone calls perfectly so that we did not get charged for the extra few seconds spoken over the mobile phone. The expensive call rates made us all practice and perfect this art of finishing the calls right before the end of any interval of 60 seconds. Talk of saving time and money! We had nailed the art of minimising wastage – our grannies would have been proud of us.
A Recharge a Day
How many times have you been to the local mobile store or to any shop owner who offers mobile recharge services? There were times when small mobile prepaid recharge packs offered more talk-time, and hence, we ran to the local stores for a recharge almost every other day – sometimes even late in the night for planned gossip sessions with friends! That was fun but the biggest brunt was born by our parents!
Rise of the Chatterati — and Mysterious Bills
As the telecommunication sector piggybacked on advanced technology, call, and messaging rates became 'affordable', and we stopped worrying about wastage of seconds/minutes on calls. We had more important dilemmas: to What's App or Tweet? To Snapchat or Tumblr? Get data or a coffee? It was great going – for a while. But all that non-stop chatter has brought us back to square one: exorbitant mobile bills that are throwing up nasty new questions: I don't even talk, only text — so how did I get such a fat bill?! I barely recharged and my data limit is over?! What a waste of talktime — I can call dad on what's App for free...
But old habits die hard and we just cannot curb our mobile usage all of a sudden. Can the tele gods please just smile on us? In a word, yes! Airtel is offering a stunning, never-before customization opportunity, where you can tweak your own mobile plan according to usage. Choose more data or more talk time as required. Yes, you heard right! Who would not want a flexible voice and data plan that lets us choose according to our usage needs? With Airtel My Plan, you can now make every minute count. Get ready to chat or text or browse as much as you want; it's game on, smile on with airtel's My Plan.