The mobile phone. Again.

I need a cell phone. The one I am using belongs to a gracious Leo who appeared at my place late one cold January night. He forced me to use his old phone (since he had bought a new one), instead of mine which was stolen a few days back. The Nokia 5140i and I have been going out for close to a year now, and clearly the battery is giving me head aches. Let's not talk about the battery now.

Now I have saved up a bit and have the choice to buy a very good phone with the usual features and may be a cool but useful feature or two. What eats me now is, how expensive is expensive? It's not that I want to flaunt a chic phone (since I can't afford a smart phone), but I want capabilities like wi-fi access which comes at a price within my saved up treasure. Still that's expensive. Yet I would like it.

Let me check: Am I feeling guilty in wanting that phone? I am not feeling too bad, honestly. I could use the extra for my other needs or save it up for future use, especially since I am going to embark on some more studies. I can even put it in a bank, like my father suggests. Or help people in need. But there wouldn't be much money left for anything else if i buy the phone with a wi-fi connection (it's a touch screen too). I don't know how to wisely use the rest of the money either.

I could buy a lower end phone, with the usual capabilities. Yet, since this is the first phone I am buying myself, my truly first phone, and stays within the amount I possess (all of which needn't be shelled out for the phone, you see), I want to have a good one.

No. 'Good' is subjective. It is a nuanced word and implies different things to different people even within the same family.

My folks' eyes will pop put if they find that I bought a phone for 9300 units of cash. Seeing them I will feel guilty.

Yet, I'd like that phone. Can I see this phone as an investment? Can I save up the money and buy a lap top or my much cherished dream of a macbook, someday? Or will money come again?

My assumption was that my confusions would be cleared if I got enough money to buy a phone. It certainly has not. I have been researching phones to buy with a budget in mind. I was set. I enquired the prices. I did semi-structured interviews with people who were users of the Nokia 5130. Finally, when the piggy bank was broken (a figurative piggy bank), there! Enough for a Samsung star Wi-fi, and the comparitively cheaper Samsung Corby and the even cheaper Samsung Corby TXT. I know the specifications of all the 4 phones, by-heart. But now, I am losing sleep on which one to buy. Money has not solved my problem. In fact, the excess has given me late sleep, too much time researching on the net, fatigue and, perhaps, a balder head (the direct effect has not been scientifically established, in this case).

A cellphone.

Who said the more the choice is, the better life gets?



Picture courtesy:

1. Samsung star wi fi: http://www.vmart.pk/main/images/samsung%20star%20wifi.jpg
2. samsung Corby: http://computer-supports.com/samsung3650corby1.jpg