Imagine a typical village dandy sitting on the back of a buffalo drinking coca cola with a mobile set in his hand beeping continuously. Most ludicrous can be the fact that the fellow is

watching a fashion TV channel and the people are staring at him because he

has been unable to switch off his mobile.

Despite being a precious gift of sophisticated technology, this tiny gadget is creating a wide gap between our age-old life pattern and the post-modern hi-tech culture. It is obvious that mobile is not for show off. We should put it to better use and think about the unalienable right of the public who might be inconvenienced because of its use.

In public meetings, the cacophony of ringing mobiles suggests that we have surrendered ourselves along with our common sense to this strange perky box. In fact we are not handling mobiles for utility but are letting them manipulate us. We act as if we would be paralysed without the cellular phones and our existence would be incomplete without it.

Just a few years ago, we could not even think of this gadget. Our grandfathers and even fathers did not have any mobiles. Life was pretty comfortable then. We now have easy access to mobiles. The thought that ‘a mobile is a must because we are considered fast’ cannot be denied in some cases. But this doesn’t mean that we have acquired an unearthly right to interfere in other people’s happiness and privacy who have nothing to do with this stuff.

In our society, cell phones have created two classes of haves and have-nots. The first class considers itself bestowed with the unalienable right to communication while the other is indifferent towards this culture and wants its privacy respected. You cannot blame this class for thinking that way. After all, they too are bona fide citizens with their own sets of rights.

In a way, this valuable device has put our social responsibility into jeopardy. It is a universal fact that it is a crime in some countries to let your mobile phone ring in public places constantly. But most of us don’t follow this rule and this becomes a criminal neglect on our part. Most of us are already infected with this malaise, which should be done away with as

soon as possible.