A renaissance that must be stopped in time

Teniza Wairokpam *

A mobile phone tower :: Pix - Tiken Thockchom

In a world as of today's where a number of sophisticated and confusing gadgets have taken over the simple hand- made products, we are bound to be led astray by these eye popping and mind blowing gadgets if we aren't cunning and firm enough to handle these gadgets. Out of the many that I can name, mobile phone, also known as cell phone is one of such devices to which many an innocent and ignorant youngster falls victim.

The new era of renaissance, where youngsters are continuously being eaten up by the blood thirsty and hypnotising contrivance, is growing very rapidly every second in every nook and corner of the existing spheres of India as a whole. This is indeed clarified eloquently by the fact that most of the youngsters of today's generation are suffering from severe cases of mobile-phone phobia.

These youngsters either knowingly or ignorantly surrender themselves to the voracious device. And in doing so, they give up their youthful and energetic glorious days, their more realistic parents, teachers, friends and most importantly their BFFL(Best Friends For Life)- books and the "environment", (which indeed is continuously degrading for want of due love and care from us, humans).

Accordingly, these youngsters are diverted from the reality of life and they are beginning to forget and of course, it's like they'd already forgotten that one should struggle hard to live a life so glorious and unimagined and to achieve things which are beyond their expectations. Instead they, especially their minds and body are drawn more and more into the dream world of mobile phones. Surprisingly, they neither feel hungry nor cold, neither weakened nor recessive when they are kept company by the internationally renowned entertainer (i.e. cell phone). They indeed want to stay with them always.

Coincidentally, I happened to come across one of my friends saying that she'd be the first to marry with the world's most wonderful mobile phone if it had been possible. I find this quite hilarious and indeed that very day, I laughed and laughed till my stomach became furious. In any case, this very thought of my friend, I feel, might have occurred to many a devotee of mobile phone in the country. Not to mention, I too have this younger brother of mine who is really, really... (Infinite) crazy about his dream girl (-mobile phone). I did indeed sit on the couch and laugh in awe till rivulets flow down my barren cheeks if he happened to marry one of those shiny, dumb girl of a mobile phone.

In any case, this renaissance has left no youngster untouched with its disgusting hands. Moreover, it is rapidly spreading its wings every hour, every minute and every second in every nook and corner of the existing sphere in order that it may increase the number of its devoted youngsters, who, in their foolishness, have given up their everything to accelerate its growth in this world.

Nowadays, it is often said that almost all children come out from their mother's womb with mobiles on their hands. On hearing this, we may laugh and forget. But, now, let's not do that for it's a serious matter to be discussed and pondered upon by people from all works of life; be he/she a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a cop or simply a simple parent. Let us join hands in preventing such kind of renaissance from spreading to a large extent. But, let's never ever join hands in turning MANIPUR into MOBILEPUR.

Let's all try and devise certain cunning schemes to make mobile phones more inaccessible to the youngsters. One more thing, mobile phone companies should really stop looking at the profits. They must know that in their process of doing so, they are hampering the future of many states in India. Please, do give a thought—had all the future guardians of the country become prisoners of mobile phones, what would've been the future of the INDIA that we're imagining?

Besides, SIM cards must be made more official and not so easily available and accessible to every youngster. From my side, I would like to request the mobile phone companies out there to devise every possible scheme to make SIM cards more inaccessible. The process of acquiring SIM cards should necessarily be made more official and that only those authorised/officially approved SIM cards must be used.

Besides, the Indian govt, in particular, must join hands with these companies and must make it compulsory for everyone that they should posses only the required no. of SIMs which may be 1 or 2 at the minimum. And well, these suggestions don't just come out of my mind out of the blue. It's just that I'm tired of seeing too many SIM cards lying on roads, garbage, etc without any value of being a SIM card.

Additionally, many heinous and barbarous acts, which include murders, crimes, etc, are committed by various people who have no or little knowledge of the true meaning behind the use of SIM cards. Not only these things, in relation to jobs, job seekers are continuously being duped through mobile phones by the miscreants, posing as a very, very sincere job providers. They are indeed very cunning and if they get lucky, they get away easily with the corrupted money they collect from job seekers and change their mobile numbers by replacing their SIM cards with a new one.

Apart from these, there have been a number of suicide cases and murder cases (as we've recently read in the paper).And why did such blood freezing activities occur? There's a simple answer to this—it was due to the misuse of mobile phones (not just the

Phone but the SIM cards in particular) and the burning desire to possess mobile phones. Of course, it is really good and convenient to have our own mobile phones and do the things that we want to do so much, you know, like surfing the net , uploading pictures, sending messages, experiencing that care- free, magical world of face book or twitter or anything.

Yes, I am aware that mobile phones especially SIM cards connect people, let them do things unimagined when they are at far-off places. But, if we cross the red line then we can benefit nothing but do certain irresistible, awful things. And this is how those horrible, terrible happenings occur. If one step goes wrong, the others too will follow the suit. So, let's put a limit to what and how we should use these clever devices and not do something very, very foolish.

I do feel that such spine-chilling murders or crimes can be stopped for once and all, if the Indian government is kind and considerate enough to establish and implement a new law which bans youngsters under 18 from using mobile phones. It may sound really very funny though, but I feel, to make this law more effective, the Indian govt. must necessarily issue mobile licenses to all. (Why not? If there can be child marriage acts and rules, RTE, RTI, Driving licenses, Domestic violence acts and rules, we could possibly have one for our internationally famous performer). I mean this mobile-thing/issue is also one which calls for a proper law and act. This is indeed a very, very serious matter.

And well, if the Indian government acts according to the wishes of those mobile- phobic people out there, what can we expect of the future of India rather than a highly rotten future, stained with shadows of darkness, with no hopes of regaining the glorious past?

And lastly, if I happen to hurt the sentiments of any mobile-phobic people out there, through my writing, then I immediately apologise. But, um…… What I've written is, I feel, the truth in the more real sense. And well, what is true is right so I feel I've wronged myself (precisely, my conscience) in apologising for something which I've done no wrong to anyone. So, dear mobile phobias, are you still thinking that I must apologise?

ONCE AGAIN, LET'S NOT TURN MANIPUR INTO MOBILEPUR.