Feb 7, 2006

A commercial

A newly-built, isolated house at the suburb of a big city. The family is preparing for the wedding of the only girl of the home. It is night time and everyone is asleep. Four thieves, who have been monitoring the activities of the house, decide to try their luck. One climbs up the post and cuts off the phone connection to the home. Now, all of them jump the fence, go to the back-door and start banging it. The house is so solitary that no other house is nearby within the shouting distance. The police station is a kilometer away. The people of the house are rudely awaken and shocked to know what is going on. Someone picks up the phone and realizes that it is dead. Then, one of the guests puts hands in his pocket, takes out his mobile and calls 100. The police is immediately alerted and just when the thieves manage to successfully break the door, they hear the police siren. They have no choice but to run towards their bikes. The family is saved and everyone appreciates the cell-phone owner.




This story might sound silly now; but imagine this to have happened 5-6 years ago, when the mobile phones were affordable but overlooked by the middle class. When I bought my first mobile in 2001 and realized its tremendous importance after a few incidents, I was wondering what a valuable invention it is. IMHO, the ads for the mobile phones and the service-providers were surprisingly less than innovative and very little was shown about its true potential. In that context, something in the line of the first para was the story I was telling Geeta then that I would like to see as an ad.

12 comments:

aruna said...

Rajanna, mukiyamana point vittuteenga....In India if you dial 100 when someone is banging the door, the cops wont be there by the time they break in, not even after the thieves leisurely pack every stuff in the house and leave.(doesnt matter if the police station is within the first km) ...911 vera 100 vera...rendum pottu kolapi katheenga..

NaiKutti said...

it sure is... with camera phones, it makes it even more conveneinet to take instant pics of some criminal activities..

but 2001 la, was it so cheap and affordable for a middle class family??

Raju said...

Aruna, LOL.. mm.. pessimistically that bad, huh? :-)
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Karthik, yeah.. that is also really amazing.. take the fotos of the criminals and send it to the inspector's mobile (his number should be known to the citizens!!) and the police can identify him and use it as an evidence to nab him even if he runs away with the loot... One can argue that a digital camera can do that too but the mobile can help prevent the crime and also once the foto is sent, there is no way it can be erased..

In 2001, in Bangalore, one could buy a simple mobile phone for about Rs. 2500 and the Airtel SIM cards were sold at different rates, starting from Rs. 300 per month. It was affordable.
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Veda, initially we also thought it to be so; but then we thought about finding out the cost.. That was the time when the mobile market was beginning to boom so the price was pretty competitive.. LOL on ur last line.. :-)

Me too said...

Wish this was invented sooner for the sake of my parents! Many a times they have waited for each other in different spots in T Nagar!! Like many other things, most luxuries become necessities in the course of time. Though I realise the many conveniences of having a cell phone, the unanswered(rather not satisfactory) questions relating to the radiation emitted by these phones/signals will always be lingering.

Anonymous said...

Such alert police action chances/success may be upto 50% only even with cell phones and depending on our star. Jurisdiction affair will pose big! However, we piously wish alert actions like what we see in USA.

But what most of the people experienced is that when one goes to Police Station to report for quick action, by the time the whole thing is narrated to their full satisfaction, the thieves will even scale up big mountains and escape peacefully. Many a time, it becomes a vexatious affair! Let us hope speedy improvement.

manian

Raju said...

Aparna, in our case too, we had to buy this bcos Geeta needed to contact me while I was watching cricket in different parts of the campus.. It surely helps connect people better but sometimes when you dont want to be disturbed by someone, there is hardly any escape; especially if the person knows your normal modus-operandi of the mobile.. :-)

About the radiation emitted by these phones, yeah.. the results are inconclusive..
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Manian, mmm.. I wrote about the use of mobile, assuming that the police does its job... if it doesnt, .....

We have had a really bad experience with the police; once my mom's chains were stolen from a purse in a train while asleep in night; when my parents lodged the complaint, the police took so much time to interrogate my aunt and uncle (just bcos it is from their place that they started), that we had to withdraw the case to prevent further humiliation.

tt_giant said...

I had many a difficult situations when I did not have a cell phone while being a grad student. Amazing utility!

Sorry Raju.. had been tighto-tight for the past N weeks. I am moving to WA this month end. So, my new year resolution which I mentioned to you is getting fulfilled!

Yours Truly said...

2001-la mobiles were cheap-aa? Hmm But irundhum enna prayojanam? I was doing my 2nd year BE sitting in a remote village which didn't even have a tower/coverage :(

Raju said...

Deepak, it is certainly very helpful when something unexpected happens while travelling, right?

I understand that you are busy. Again a similarity - I will be moving out of Florida next month-end!! Oops.. I forgot your new year resolution.. sorry.. Whatever, hope your moving goes smoothly.
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Yours truly, they werent as cheap as they are now (Rs. 500 and all) but those China bazaar-type shops used to sell fairly good and reliable mobiles (new) for close to Rs. 3000. Yeah, coverage was a big issue then.. amazing how much life changes within 5-6 years, ille?

Raju said...

What would Balaji's other 4 best romantic movies be? mm.. I guess Ghajini, Roja, Aasai and Kaakha kaakha. Let me see..

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