'...communication and its bare necesities'

Well walking in the beautiful city of Nairobi has its pros and cons. It is amazing how the mobile phone industry has grown in Kenya, from the days when getting a phone line would cost you over 10,000KES to nowadays when it has come down to as low as 40KES. Phone prices dropping drastically and so on...

The telecommunication industry all over has made some big steps with alot of stuff available to the user (which is you)...yaani it has gotten to a point whereby you can hav a computer and a phone @ the same time (aka PDA Phone {like the one in the picture to the left}).

Several kenyans do not enjoy the luxury of having on of these PDA phones, in fact some of the gadgets carried around can not be shown in public...

I am reminded of this one incident, I was @ the office with hAtErZ pArAdIzE Rep no.2 (aka hp-Rep.2) and a pal of ours walks in . After catching up, it was time for a meeting we were to have. Seeing as we want to practice good broadroom ethics and we have no personal assistant who can answer our phones, we saw it prudent (meaning - careful and sensible; marked by sound judgment) to switch off our phones.

Water-Game Phenomenon
Now our pal...lets call him Water-Game James...is going to switch off his phone, apparently it was off??!!? So while placing it on the table I ask him,

"...have you switched off your phone?" he responds,

"...kwani! Sindio!!!!" translation for my diaspora readers - "....what do you mean! Yes!!!!"

Now, I really did not believe because while looking at the phone, I can see the wallpaper - normally when the phone is off all you see is a black screen - example in the photos below - note phone shown below is NOT James phone!

Angle 1 : Phone off

Angle 2: Phone On

From my point of view and according to the schooling I got, a switched off phone should look like or portray the characteristics that Angle 1 is showing.

What made me confused, James phone when switched off looks much like Angle 2????!!!!??? Yes,,,its true, I thought he was messing with me, but it is true...he has a permanent background. To make it even worse, the back drop for his phone aint anything to get happy about, for you Windows XP users, its the default wallpaper (aka Windows Bliss).

I had to grab the phone and hold it myself, switch it on and off to confirm truly that is the way it was wired. I was @ a lack of words, I truly lacked what to tell him...I was almost motivated to buy him a new phone, but it was beyond me.

This phone immediately reminded me of the gadgets we used as toys called water-games...where there was this plastic contraption and a part of it was filled with water and in the water were two spikes on the right and left and a couple of rings. On the body where two buttons to be push that caused a pressure in the water that pushed the rings up and the aim was to get all the rings in the spikes.


Ringtones Mentality
To think this was not enough, Water-Game James was in Limuru on another job and when his phone 'rang', someone that was with him turned fast and said,

"...ka ni ringtone unaweka kwa simu, weka kitu ya nguvu...si vitu zina lia ka sucess card" translation - "...if its a ringtone on your phone, put something sensible...not something that is sounding like a sucess-card"
NB: the sucess cards and/or christmas cards sent at times, some have a monophonic song within the card coming out of a puny speaker...making some irritating, stinging sound.

The other day while at lunch dudes phone rings, I could have sworn there were those christmas lights that come with music within the building. To think guys pride in these gadgets...

Its amazing the compe that is out there for ringtones and all, sometime back...a friend bought a Motorola L6, seeing this a huge upgrade from Nokia 3310...alot of stuff was possible e.g. loading mp3 ringtones etc. Now one evening while chatting with the wife, the wife's phone rings and the friend goes,

"...ALA! Bado simu yako ni hile ya green screen na monophonic ringtone! Angalia hi (bragging his new phone), colour screen, na ringtone ya strength" then his phone rings, the ringtone being the popular Gospel Fathers song, Fundi wa Mbao. "...sikia hio (dancing to the track)..eh!!!" translation - "...What! Your phone is those with the green screen and monphonic ringtone! Look at this, colour screen, with a serious ringtone" phone rings, "listen to that!!! Smart stuff!!!"

What do we learn from this?
Well to be honest I dont know what can be learnt out of this but i would say...please do get yourself a worth while phone, do not constrain yourselves to...

"...bora naeza recieve simu na tuma ma-text, niko sawa" translation - "...so long as I can recieve calls and send text messages, am cool"

Be carefull with the mobile gadget you carry around, it is important to carry some reasonable phones!



Keep Your Heads Up :: hpRep.1