Just to give everyone a background, I have been a heavy smartphone user in the last 6 months. It was getting to a point where I had developed an attention span of a meerkat (i assumed they keep looking around and never stick to a single view) and was distracted easily. I have been talking about reducing smartphone use, especially WhatsApp and in early Nov I decided to exit all groups and not use Whatsapp, Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, or any other timepass entertainment app. Unfortunately, I had to use Whatsapp a couple of times a day as I was coordinating some work in a remote area. My days were more productive and was able to get loads of things done. I was proudly saying 'all I need is a Nokia 1100' 😁
Last Friday evening, I had to step out in rain to buy a few things for house construction. My laze track pants and bike-loving self (who doesn't like to ride an RX 135 on a wet empty street 😍 ) shoved the phone in the so-called pocket in the track pant and was heading back home when I suddenly realized the phone has fallen down within 100 mtrs. In the 2 mins I returned, the phone was gone and it was switched off (some asshole found it and happily kept it for his booze party for the next few weeks...grrrrrr!!!). Got back home and after 30 mins of gyan from my family on how careless I am, I managed to file a visit to the local police station just to find out there is an app to e-report lost things and pick up a new SIM card.
It was already late and I had an early morning drive to Coorg, I had no time to buy a phone. Searched for my 5 yr old smartphone but couldn't find it and ended up with my moms 6 yr old Nokia keypad phone :D it is not 1100 as it has a color screen and ikon like Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, which do not work and just remind me of what I am missing.
As I said, "Be careful what you wish for, especially when it is a Nokia 1100!!!"😈
Now the realization of what life is like with a non-smartphone:
1. The phone has not been switched on for 4 yrs (it has missed call message from my aunt from 2017) and after searching my dad's museum of chargers from the 90's I found a couple of chargers that suits the phone. Within 5 mins of charging, the phone switched on (had to struggle to put the SIm, as the 2ns SIM slot does not work if there is no 1st SIM card. It was like the phone said: "Why would you use the 2nd SIM card slot which is easy to use if you have only one SIM you Fuckin Idiot!!!" 😤) and was as good as it was before, that is impressive!!!
2. I had to leave at 6 am and wanted to keep an alarm. I had no patience to figure that out and let it be. Woke up every hour till 3am to make sure I'm up by 5 and then managed to sleep till 5.45am. Had to skip a bath and rush.
3. I normally check the traffic before leaving but thanks to my keypad phone, I had no way to do that and managed to hit Gurguntepalya traffic at 6.20 in the morning and lost another 15 mins
4. I normally like to hear some music which is played on Bluetooth but on my keypad phone, what can I say. I tried the radio with my aux cable but the genius in the phone recognized it is not a headphone and rejected it. It was like "I don't want you to disturb people around you with this stupid radio, If you want to listen to the stupid radio, it has to be only you with your headset on, u dumb fuck"
5. The phone is so small it fits nicely into the handle slot of the car door. Nice feature!
6. I had lost all my numbers as there is nothing called contact sync. My mom had luckily all my old contacts during the famous era of the 500 contact storage in SIM Card and transfer on a 1000 contact storage phone, Wow. I was shocked to see some of my Oracle contacts on it who I have not spoken to in the last 15 yrs (yes, I was that bored sitting in the car, sue me). There is no true caller to identify spam and I picked up a couple of them.
7. Coorg is a beautiful place with minimal phone signal strength so that people can enjoy life in nature. But thanks to our stupidity and always available syndrome, the network companies have managed to provide fiber optics coverage to most homestays giving u uninterrupted access to the internet and VOIP calls. The supreme power saw this coming and made sure I have a phone who does not understand what WiFi or 4G means. So I was peacefully enjoying nature with no expectation of any network or calls.
8. Thanks to my unavailability, all the coordination work was passed on to my cousins :) I could get drenched in the rain without worrying about the phone getting spoilt!!!
9. The entire weekend was no distraction as I always wished and could get some work done on the site. The evening was peaceful thanks to the homestay owner disconnecting his DTH. Looks like the supreme power was in action there too!!!
10. I planned to return to Bangalore by 6pm to get a backup smartphone. Thanks to the cyclone effect, it was pouring down and the traffic was insane. Reached my cousins at 7pm and google maps on my cousin's phone showed insane traffic back home. So decided to skip the shopping and spent time with extended family!!
So here is the conclusion from the 3 days of no smartphone:
1. Never keep your phone in a trackpant without zips for pockets while you are on an RX (but do drive an RX, it is great fun)!!!
2. There are so many things we are dependent on a smartphone like online payments, maps, calling thru wifi, emails, etc which is important for our daily life. I do not think it is easy to live without them. I now have to keep a wallet in my trackpant on my RX :)
3. Switching off once in a while is brilliant. TBH, we do not those many emergency calls that need us to be available all the time. I probably got 10 calls over the weekend. I didn't even carry my phone with me which felt liberating :)
4. I was able to survive a weekend without a smartphone, hopefully, the weekday will also be fine as I have a laptop for work-related things.
5. I have to figure out a way of adding all contacts and until then, if I cant reach out, no hard feelings as I do not have your number. And if someone calls, please accept my sincere apologies if I don't recognize you. I already had a couple of calls like those over the weekend and I'm still figuring out who I spoke to :)
6. And the non-smartphone got me back to blogging after a decade. Ignoring the grammar, it is definitely worth it 👍
Ok, one late realization, how do i send this blog to my friends as i do not have WhatsApp web 🙇
