NOT THE FRUIT

Blackberry: the phone, not the fruit.


For someone who has always prided himself as a gizmo geek, I finally own a blackberry. This is 12 years since the emergence of the first monochromic blackberry. Much to my shame?

Well, my earliest impression on the smart phone was that it was basically the gizmo of those people who on the go need to keep tabs with the server of workplace correspondence. Also, I have always been repelled by the sheer size of the older models (I dislike the bulk in my pocket!) and I have never really been a fan of a push-mail kind of life. It just seems to interrupt me. Agreed that certain messages require urgent response, but the circumstances of my life rarely demand the prompting of a mail. I just prefer to check things out myself. The deliberateness of that kind of pull-mail lifestyle makes me feel in control of my world. Who needs the feeling of loosing grips with life in this fast pace age of ours?

It has turned out that these days everyone needs information and even social interaction on the go. Also, all smart phones have push mail functions and the need for touch/multi-media screens make them bulky- though not necessarily heavy. So when I got word that a wrong deduction from my last year’s salary would be paid back in July, I opt to get one of those recent blackberry models and a tab. As I am also in the habit of indulging - well, rewarding myself periodically, my choices were justified. A birthday present would be in order too.

A few days ago, I finally took delivery of a BB device and I am probably the last person to own one. In retrospect, I wonder why it took so long for me to join the throng of young people whose use of the hand-held device has no input from a business mail server. Perhaps, the fact that every other person owned a BB was also a deterrent. Sometimes, one just wants to keep a unique identity from what is common place. In the end, one has got to do what one has got to do irrespective of position on the queue. From this hind stand of mine, the title of this post might as well be: “First from behind”!