As I was returning home from work, in my office-bus, with ear-phones plugged in, mild-head-banging to music, I see an image outside my window. A person - no, not just "A" person, but almost all people, in another corporate-bus, mirroring what I was doing. Ear-phones plugged, hooked to their phone screens, with swishy-finger-movements on their swanky touch-phones.
Gone are the days when these bus-rides would be a time for people to catch up with the familiar faces they see every day while commuting to and from work. Now, all one can here is the hum of the engine and occasionally, the screeching brakes. Are we using ear-phones (and the music too) as a tool to shut out the traffic sounds? Or to shut out other people who MAY make an effort to initiate a conversation with us?
I recollect that a few years back, I did not belong to this "ear-phones-club". I would be found enjoying the sights that my bus-ride took me through - vendors pushing their carts laden with fruits, weaving their way in and out of the traffic, men getting back home to their families, maybe with a bag of hot jalebis for their kids, or if I knew the person sitting next to me, we would strike up a conversation about the most random things and at the end of the ride, hop off from the bus in a jovial mood that comes only from having had a good conversation.
Times have changed. We are becoming more and more withdrawn, weaving ourselves into a cocoon that has place for just one person - 'ME'.
I'm not saying all of us do this. I am not saying if we do this, we should stop it right away, or even that it is wrong.
All I am asking is...what did we do when our phones were a mere means of communication without FM Radio and MP3 players?
Just a thought :)
Gone are the days when these bus-rides would be a time for people to catch up with the familiar faces they see every day while commuting to and from work. Now, all one can here is the hum of the engine and occasionally, the screeching brakes. Are we using ear-phones (and the music too) as a tool to shut out the traffic sounds? Or to shut out other people who MAY make an effort to initiate a conversation with us?
I recollect that a few years back, I did not belong to this "ear-phones-club". I would be found enjoying the sights that my bus-ride took me through - vendors pushing their carts laden with fruits, weaving their way in and out of the traffic, men getting back home to their families, maybe with a bag of hot jalebis for their kids, or if I knew the person sitting next to me, we would strike up a conversation about the most random things and at the end of the ride, hop off from the bus in a jovial mood that comes only from having had a good conversation.
Times have changed. We are becoming more and more withdrawn, weaving ourselves into a cocoon that has place for just one person - 'ME'.
I'm not saying all of us do this. I am not saying if we do this, we should stop it right away, or even that it is wrong.
All I am asking is...what did we do when our phones were a mere means of communication without FM Radio and MP3 players?
Just a thought :)
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