MIA

"The weirdest things happen to me." this woman wailed to me.

"That used to me be once" I sighed and thought.

Like the time, just a couple of months back, when my slider phone suddenly went kaput. It would show a dazzling white screen upon opening. I could not see what the heck I was typing. And it chose to do this mid week. I could still receive and make calls in it though. I could off course switch the sim into a spare old Nokia but with one problem. I could not open the slider. I never could. I never had. So I gotta friend to do that for me, on my way back home.  Come weekend I will buy me a new phone, I consoled myself.

But the spare was nowhere to be found in the house. And then I was told that Daddy dearest, had come home on a rainy day and dumped his clothes in the washer dryer and hit the power button only to realize a whole hour later that his phone had been in his pant pocket. Ouch! He had been using my spare phone since.

The next day, Wednesday, I spent the day trying to think. We did have another phone somewhere. Ah! Turns out my dad had also been pick pocketed a couple of months back. Now that I knew. Well...
"Why aren't you buying a new phone?" I wanted to ask him. But I refrained. I knew he hates cell phones. And to be fair, since the day the cell had hit the markets in India, he was letting me use the new one, resigning himself to using my hand me downs. He really does dislike cell phones. Especially new ones. I don't know why.

Meanwhile, I had kept the back of the phone open those couple of days. So to top it all, the battery just decided to fall off in the space between my bedroom when I had last received a call just before stepping out and the stretch of road to the waiting cab. Perfect!

I give up, do research online, curse lady luck (she has to be a lady , she is so against me these days) and go cell phone shopping. The shop keeper, this friend took me to, known to have the cheapest rates in town, did not have the around 19k Nokia model I wanted.
"No one buys Nokia these days" he prattled. "You should go for Samsung. Annndrrroiid"
"No. I won't." I said gazing at the tab model on the counter. I hated having my plans spoilt. I had no intention of splurging on a phone this year. I knew just what I had wanted prior to this phone fiasco. And the year and month that I had wanted it in. "What do you have cheaper?" I ask him.
He looked both shocked and disgusted. "How cheap?"
"Say 3k to 4k" I was now looking for a good spare phone.
He gaped and pulled out a lot of ugly looking Nokia phones. "You said you wanted Nokia."
"I changed my mind. Show me Samsung. Show me Motorolla." I was turning into Kareena from that bag ad.

My heart settled on a qwerty keypad, dual sim, blackberry lookalike. "Perfect" I smile. He still looked disgusted. Very much so.
"Show me a cover for this."

"I am giving you that for free." The man was sourly but did have the cheapest rates. Truly amazing.

Did I mention they found my phone battery in the shoe box, at the entrance of the house, a week later?