Saying Goodbye to Dying NOKIAs

Door called me awhile ago. “How are you. Are the phones in the service shop now?” I told him that I was going out for it already. We had a little chat then hang up. He tasked me two busted Nokia phones for repair at Bright Point Nokia Service Center. The N70 and N3660 had its doze of last December’s typhoon Reming fuss. It got soaked, and the rest were horrible stories to sum up. He still got hopes it'll get to operate again. Creeping out of bed to get ready for the day, I checked on the pouches where the two gadgets bare and lifeless laid. Poor damped widgets – dying. The telephone downstairs was madly ringing. I got to answer while I’m stripping from smelly clothes preparing for a shower. Hurrying my descent to the stairwell, I heard something fall off from me. Sounds of little crashes put me in fright.

                                                                                              

It was my cell phone, divided in three parts! Silly thing, the call stopped ringing. While I pick-up the slivers of my old gadget, I saw its LCD part blinking, once, twice. It halted. I was looking at someone dying. In a sad pace, I was re-constructing the pieces again. Busy with the reconfiguration, I was unconscious that the non-living object just put me to a little sadness. Anyway, it was my three-year old cellphone and I already bought a new Nokia N71 six months ago. I seldom use it now. But memories of my Nokia 3200 were refreshed.

                                                                                                

Just a stupid gadget as you will probably dub, the little object showed me something that opened my mind. Of course cellular phones are important to communication purposes. Moreover, its added features just come secondary. The radio player, camera, MMS, sex videos (oops), GPRS and other wireless services just spice-up everything. I already had a personal relationship with the device, as everybody does. You bring it everywhere just to stay connected. Today, the cellphone hysteria is one top techie hot-stuff. Unlimited video recordings could even cover your three-hour wedding ceremony. Music players on phones can store up to three gigs of space. It even gets top spots on Yahoo search engines and “grown-up Christmas lists” or birthday gifts! Yeah, we’re there but as I believed, there’s more.

                                                                                                

News on cellphone snatching and frauds covered police reports and blotters the past years. A young working professional in Makati died fighting goons from grabbing her precious communication gadget. A student was stabbed to death for stashing his Nokia from a holdupper. Well, to hell with those news – my Nokia gadget showed me that people and strangers could still be trusted. The phone was lost and returned to me three times since I bought it in mid-2004 at almost ten thousand pesos. Now, it only costs a thousand, I guess. I frequently neglected the N3200 at the office several times at the top of my desk and nobody bothered to claim it. Haha, nobody wants a cheap gadget. The most unforgettable incident was that time when I left the cellphone in a restaurant after dining with Tope and Carene. The street children were pounding at the curtain glass walls pointing on the neglected cellular device. I was wondering, the waiter did not notice anything! After recovering the gadget and thanking the kids, I received a text confirmation for a job interview. Somehow, fate would not allow a lost cellphone ruin a good job offer. There’s still the good in every bad situations.

                                                                                                   

I understand why Door or even YOU wouldn’t want to say goodbye to the “Nokias.” More than just reasons that we bought it in dainty prices or hard-earned money; we don’t want it to die like humans do. They exist as non-living things that encompasses us to an enhanced life. Even museums keep old craps - like the Mona Lisa in Louver, or the Mummies on fancy wooden cases in Egypt... because they have stories to tell. Moreover, your cellular phones have greater words to put in the picture. They are part of our own little histories. They could live forever.