Who said I’m lazy? I’m just having ‘fun’!!!

One day, I was having one of the ‘dad-son’ conversations with my dad on the sands of Marina beach, Chennai. This time, we had got into a conversation about how ‘connected’ we are in this world today. He was telling me about the days when he used to call his friends through ‘trunk’ calls and how they used to write letters. It was entirely different from what we are experiencing now. He was telling me how there was a great sense of pride in having a telephone connection back those days and all of sudden, my ‘Samsung Galaxy s2’ glowed and vibrated with a message tone. My dad stopped speaking as I looked at the screen. He asked me what it was. I told him that it was one of my friends in Belgium asking me about the review of a recent movie. He was so fascinated that I could connect to a person thousands of miles away with a mobile. I said that ‘Internet is Fun’ , especially if you are on Vodafone. He wanted to get some ‘gyaan’ on this ‘Internet is fun’ stuff.

            This was one such opportunity that I didn’t want to miss because I was always at the receiving end of the ’gyaan’. I immediately unlocked my mobile and tapped on the customized opera browser. I opened Google search page and told him that I use this to find out whatever I want.  I showed him how this browser can list the frequent visited sites on my mobile.  Just then, a notification popped up on my screen. It was about my cousin commenting on my FB status. I tapped it and it logged me into FB. I replied back to her comment. I told my dad that his cousin in US has posted some pics of his new house. I opened his album and my dad looked at his new house pics. He also commented and ‘liked’ some of the pics. He was more than happy to have my uncle commenting back as he was also online then.  I asked if my dad wanted to speak to him. He said that an ISD call would be costly and he preferred to call him from landline. I smiled back and asked “Would you like to see him now?” My dad looked confused. I tapped the ‘Skype’ icon on my screen and within seconds, my dad was lost in sharing his experiences of “Internet is Fun” via video call. Meanwhile, I went to buy two Cornetto ice-creams from the ice-cream vendor.

             By the time I came back, my dad was looking worried and handed me the phone quickly as if it was ‘red-hot’. He told me that after finishing the call, he mistakenly pressed some bird image on the screen and it loaded something that made a lot of messages flow on the screen. I looked at the screen and it was my ‘twitter’ account page. I told that there was nothing to worry as it was just the tweets from my friends on twitter. I then took a pic of ours having ice-cream and uploaded it using ‘Twitpic’ app. He was amazed to see various things I could do with Internet access on my mobile. I told him that this magic was only because of the Vodafone internet packs. I also told him about the speed and the download charges. He was in a state of disbelief to know about how much less I had to pay for using the video call using skype few minutes back.

            He was very much interested to know more about how “Internet is Fun”.  He took out his Nokia1100 mobile to call my mom and tell her that we were coming a bit late for dinner. He couldn’t connect as he had no balance left in his account. I told him that I would recharge his mobile then and there. He asked me how I could, as we were in the beach with no recharge stalls in the eye-sight. I again used my Opera to open Vodafone Shop. He got the amount credited to his account instantly. He was thrilled at this. I then opened the ‘Mortal Kombat’ gaming App and threw a challenge at my gamer-friend online. The game started and my dad was looking at how I was playing.  After I finished it, we started to walk again. It was very difficult for me to walk in the sand where as he was walking without any discomfort. I asked him how and he told me about his ‘kabbadi’ days on the sands of Marina Beach. The times have changed and so did the games.

          I also told him about the other apps that I use to send mails, book train tickets, read news papers, buy stuff online and invest in stock-market. Hearing about the stock-market app, he raised his eyebrows. I explained him about the ‘Money Control’ financial app, which I use to track the shares, and the ‘HDFC mobile demat’ app to place the orders. He advised me to be watchful and not be too greedy about easy money in the stock-market.  Deeply involved in conversation about these awesome apps, we were oblivious of the change in weather. It was dark and cloudy. He stood up to leave but I asked him to sit as there won’t be any showers till night. He asked me why and I showed my ‘Weather Channel’ App.

         I got a chance to show him the apps that I use on regular basis. He now understood why I hang on to my mobile for long hours. He had a feeling that I was just wasting my time with that “dirty device” (that’s what he prefers to call my mobile).  I always received ‘gyaan’ from him but giving him ‘gnyaan’ was like ‘once in a lifetime offer’. And I had a great shot at it with the help of “Vodafone” internet pack. Indeed, Internet is fun on Vodafone. Thank You Vodafone. You rock!!!

P.S. We returned home watching NDTV’s “We the People” on Vodafone Mobile TV. 

This post is published as a part of the Indiblogger’s “Internet is Fun!  on Vodafone” contest.