It's been two weeks now, since the red letter day when I decided to do away with my mobile phone once and for all... a gadget which is ummistakenly the latest gift of science bestowed upon an already burdended mankind.

Of course, the reasons for dispensing with my mobile phone are not far to seek.! On an average my mobile phone beeps around 60 t0 80 times a day with approximately forty to fifty callers...! If the calls remain unanswered, the inquisitive caller gets more inquisitive, and keeps pressing his call button at least a dozen times more...!

To avoid disturbance in classes, I used to turn on the silent mode, and stay put in class, only to return and find 35 missed calls or 40 missed calls heaped up one on one ('headaches by the number, trouble by the score!' - a remix of Harlan Howard will do no harm here!!!) So I decide to keep him at bay (home) for a month, and then come to class.

But by now, it had spiralled itself into double trouble, spelling disaster for the little time i'd kept reserved (rather treasured!) for myself. All those missed calls have by now piled up by the dozens, and convention, courtesy or formality or whatever you call it, demands me to enquire back or call back all these faithful callers who've been alarmed at the inattention bestowed on them for hours together. Before I could start my call backs, calls pour in with the following samples...: "hello sir, what are the portions for 2mrw's exam?" etc etc...

After a while, i said to myself, 'enough is enough!'"life is too short to be spent answering mobile calls for one third of every day!!!" I've got to do something about this, before the mobile phone eats up into my little space which i battle to keep for myself every single day, in vain!

So the next day, I go to my class and tell my students to delete my number from their respective mobile devices, as I had dispensed with my mobile number once and for all...! One student immediately asked me quite an expected question, "Sir, then how can we keep in touch with you?"

I answered him gently, "You can keep in touch with me, as how i used to keep in touch with my professors seven years back, as a student... before the thief of time called nokia or motorola or samsung or whatever, came in to snatch and steal away people's valuable time and stealthily intrude into the little personal space that people have for themselves...!"

He tacitly nodded his head in silent approval.!

DISCLAIMER: All characters and situations appearing in this post are real. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely incidental.!!!

CAUTION: Beware! The stealth bomber is always at your back, trying to kill the liberated personality deep within you.!!! It's time you woke up to this stealth bomber, far more dangerous than the whole armoury of Pentagon added up!!!

CHALLENGE: Try dispensing with your mobile phone for one full week in a row and see the difference it can make to your body, soul and mind...! It's very very very difficult...! But it needs guts to do that...! Cos, sadly no de-addiction centres have come up so far to counter this menace!!! We sincerely Hope our Social workers, NGOs and other altruists do something about this, before the proverbial camel throws away its master and seats itself firmly in his place..!

PRAYER: Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high... Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake!!! (One of the most simple and effective prayers of Tagore that fits the occasion!!!)