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Diwali Celebrations and text messages!!

Wish you all a very Happy Diwali!! Hope all of you had a good time bursting crackers, eating sweets and wearing new clothes. Typically these three things constituted Diwali for me for the last so many years. The latest addition to this list is sending of text messages to your known/unknown people, friends, relatives and colleagues!! What is Diwali without texting all on your phone book!!?

In the initial few years when mobile phone came in, it was an easy exercise considering the low peneteration. But off-late your phone book runs to some 200-300 odd people and it takes a good 2-3 hours to complete this exercise. Last year, almost the whole of the morning on the Diwali day was spent with mobile on hand rather than with sweets or crackers.

So, I decided to limit the number of text messages. Not to send out text messages to all the contacts. No point in sending to all and sundry in the phonebook. The other thing I did was not to do it early in the morning on the Diwali day.

During these festive occasions you receive text messages from numbers which you have not stored in your mobile phone. You can't recognise who is the sender and I have sent messages asking for details of the person. I hardly receive any reply for these kind of texts. I don't want my texts to land up like that in others mobiles.

I think, thanks to texts, the biggest casualty in calling and wishing somebody on these festive days. Forget visiting somebody on these occasions, I hardly even call somebody on these days. I remember Diwali days when I used to visit all my uncles, aunts houses in Tuticorin sharing sweets and bursting crackers with my cousins. The same cousins live in different parts of Chennai now, but I didn't even call them. Sent a text message and was happy with that!

This year, the mobile companies started charging for text messages on Diwali day, even if your monthly mobile tariff plan provides 10000 (!!?) free texts every month. Opportunity for these guys to make some money in a very competitive environment, thanks to new entrants who have come out with per second billing and per word text message charges.

Anyways, Happy Diwali to all who read this blog post!!

4 comments:

adwait said...

Hi Venkat !!

Happy Deepawali to you and all who read your blog !! I agree with you that we have taken shelter under the mass texting technological solution of wishing. It is a tick in the box excercise and is void of emotion. Infact, it also takes away the one opportunity one gets to network and "catch-up" with those perhaps you don't see/talk that often !!

Anand said...

Hope you had a nice Diwali. Its completely different if you live outside India.
Its one of those days all your relatives back home expect a call.
Calling friends and relatives on diwali day is a major event !!

Venkysdiary said...

Hi Anand,
Agreed.
Calling is fine but just being happy with texting is what dont want.

Venkysdiary said...

Hi Adwait,

True..talking opens up many a vista whereas text is so close ended..

Do you know, I heard post-Diwali this time queries/comments from people, why no text message wishes for Diwali!!