19 Nov 2009

The Ringing


For some days now I choose to keep my cell phone on silent mode. The practice started during a grueling shoot where everyone was required to keep phones on silent mode so as to not disturb the audio while recording.

I went back to the normal mode after the shoot but it just did not work. I had become used to the silence and the gentle buzz of the phone when someone called. Now the ringing would push my anxiety levels and needlessly irritate me every time it would ring. I discussed with a friend who agreed but did not have a solution.

So you try to distract yourself with different ringtones. BEEP. BEEP TWICE. BRILL. BUZZER CERTITUDE. CIRCLE. CLOCK ALERT 1. CLOCK ALERT 2. CLOCK ALERT 3. CUBICLE. DENSITY....

The list is endless. You keep changing from one to the other till you get irritated with all of them and switch to film tunes.

Throughout its short history, cell phones have been accused of many things. Some studies say it causes cancer of the brain. Courts have banned its use in India while driving and schools have tried to curb students from using it. But what can you do when the ringing of a phone makes you irritable?

Most of the irritation stems from the fact that it demands an immediate response and people around you also look at you strangely if you do not answer your phone on a regular basis. They start thinking that you would do this to them.

It is not the conversations that I detest. It is the ring tones.

One day I would like to meet the guys who compose them. And bash their heads together.

Cartoon : Toon Pool

2 comments:

Life@60 said...

One thing I always wonder about is why are people willing to pay for some special catchy ring tones !As for me a ring tone is a ring tone is a ring tone....

manythoughts said...

Ring tones are a good source of entertainment on Mumbai locals. Devotional artis, stereophonic 'dhan te tan' type of stuff, the ubiquitous film numbers... it's a source of personal amusement when I'm on a train. God bless those ring tone creators :)