My Phone Book

When I was in 8th grade I was gifted a bag by some random relatives. It helped me bear my luggage as a beast of burden in school (Too many books :P). It's secret pocket was a haven for my pokemon tazos in school. It was my only companion when I cycled 15Km to college once. During engineering, it soothed my melancholy filled bus journeys by being my stuffed animal. I carried it twice with me through my treacherous journey to shabari mala. I really liked that bag, It was one of my favourite possessions. I have been attaching myself random objects and I  was overly attached to this bag. Sadly, the bag started giving away after 7 years and I was forced (by parents) to let it go for good. I was angry and frustrated because I felt they didn't understand me (Neither did I). After many pointless arguments, I lost patience and gave it up…….

Silver Lining

Around the same time, my phone stopped working so I got to use my mom's office phone which was lying at home. This was my first java enabled phone with gprs and a memory card so this seemed like a mega smart phone during the transition. I had loads of fun with this phone. Firstly, Iphone theme made me feel cool just carrying it around. My entire song collection  easily fit into the memory card. Listening to songs while running  helped me improve as a runner. I would almost be on the verge of giving up when the phone would play the Dark Knight theme and I would get inspired to run that extra lap. Usually I would be moody in bus because I would be leaving college or home abruptly. I would watch videos  from Phineas and Ferb and Avatar. They really made my journeys pleasant and reviving. The phone even became my therapist when I tried self hypnosis (Bad idea!). It made my mornings by being my rejuvenating music alarm clock with  my favorite songs. (You'll think I am gay if I tell you 😀 ) 

One Awesome thing that I achieved was  finish Pokemon Red the game boy emulator version on it m/ !!. My common reply to what you upto would be "lying in bed playing pokemon all day". It was my best source for reading books. I remember cancelling treats and farewells parties to lie in sheets and read novels in the dark. After discovering a cheap GPRS plan, I would use Gtalk, Facebok and Twitter so I was always connected with friends. I had also built a web interface to update my journal through the phone so it was my pocket diary. It was my secondary source of Internet when my net would get busted …#lifesaver. It was a worn out Nokia 3110c but was my perfect companion. I never got bored when it was  with me.

In essence this phone meant a lot to me and it wore a lot of hats in my petty life. Recently my mom's office asked the phone back and I had to  give it up 😦 . I didn't resist or feel any need to this time. I liked the phone a lot but my experience with the bag had taught me not to get attached. One of the most common Zen advice I see is "Give away all attachments". In both the cases I had a great time with these two objects but only the former invoked me to be attached. It's these moments that count not the entity itself, by attaching myself I was weighing myself down. My dad says "don't hold anything too tightly your hands will never be free". .(+1 for my dad and +000000.1 for the green puppet Yoda for teaching me this )

One of my flaws is I over-think things, I had started to think that my bag was "the bag"  so I felt bad when I was asked to leave it. Luckily, I didn't let myself feel the same about the phone. It was just a phone that I could have a lot of fun.

Why so much drama over a phone? LOL… it was my friend 🙂 .

What I learned

1) Operamini is a great browser

2) Reading books in class is a must for students

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3) Don't Overthink

4) Not having attachments doesn't stop me from having great memories