Click here for more...

(ARCHIVE) Vol. XX No. 1, april 16-30, 2010
a-Musing
By Ranjitha Ashok

But softly, for ear through yonder noise doth shatter

This is a cell-phone.


Now listen, Vidya, this is absolutely confidential and for your ears only...!

Say ‘Ss-ell-fone’.

Very good.

Now, this is a telephone.

‘Te-lly-fone’?

That’s right.

Now listen carefully – you cannot speak on one like you do on the other. It’s very simple.

With the telephone (te-lly-fone) you are usually within a restricted area – room, office, home, etc.

With a cell-phone (ss-ell-fone), you are in a way all over the place. So you need to be careful with what you say ... and how loudly you say it. Otherwise you’ll lay your entire life out like a laundry line for the world to see.

Bit much.

Life’s hard enough, without being forced to listen to strangers going: “Okay, okay, yes, yes, aah-okay, okay...” for fifteen minutes; to long tirades against work/family; or who should have met whom where, and what really happened to the potato curry...

Little annoying, all this mundane minutiae of someone else’s life, especially when you’re grappling with the same nonsense in your own.

People choose the strangest places to air their lives – shops, aircraft, buses, train compartments, lobbies... even doctor’s waiting room.

A little like those folks breaking into song about their most intimate emotions in a movie.

Aural assault should be declared a punishable crime.

If walking and talking is fine, so is think-before-you-start-speaking.

 

In this issue

Welcome redevelopment of parks & gardens
Turning T’Nagar into an aerial city?
Two historic buildings under threat
The new Assembly complex and Uttaramerur
Historic Residences of Chennai - 40
Other stories

Our Regulars

Short 'N' Snappy
a-Musing
Our Readers Write
Quizzin' with Ram'nan
Dates for your Diary

Archives

Back to current issue...