I use a Nokia 1100 and have been using it for the past four years.

Back then, when I was in school, it was actually my mother's phone.But me, being the scheming daughter and she being the lenient Ma, I got to use it often, to send sms-es and , most importantly, give missed calls to friends, just to let them know that I'm right here and will soon be in possession of a cellphone like them!...Well, no qualms in admitting that, I did want a phone badly.But looking back, I'm happy that my parents were firm and didn't buy me one then.

There wasn't any dearth of cellphones for me to use.Didibhai,being a perennial tech retard,it was absolutely my responsibilty to show her how to use it.And inevitably,I'd put on a very grave expression and say..Tor cell e kichhu ekta gondogol hoyechhe. Have to check.Give me some time. And poor gullible Didibhai had no other option but to part with it.Man! I had a rocking time,smsing,playing games.or just texting people,bugging them with missed calls.Didibhai used a Nokia 73, a tremendously glitzy phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics.The shutterbug in me was probably awakened then!The wonder called Global Packet Radio Service was slowly being discovered and diligently explored, turning a deaf ear to the incessant wails and accusations..Tui e kichhu korechhish!..when the exorbitant bill arrived( she had post-paid connection!)It had a 32 kbps connection and I,who was deprived of the availability of the Internet for two years in class 11-12,made full use of it.That phone has a special place in my heart for itself.I coveted it.For months,I dreamt of owning one like it.And devised schemes of how to wheedle Baba into buying me one.But then, Baba being Baba, he flatly refused.

Now that I'm in college, I'm using Ma's Nokia 1100.And I'm not complaining.Call me proud,but I'm planning to buy myself a good phone later,much later,possibly after I get a job and am able to buy it myself.Baba asked me whether I want a new phone and I said "No!"...Some people called me an "angelic fool"(I clearly remember :-) ). But then,it's not about that! I am fine with my 1100.

Yeah,indeed I am.True, its keypad needs to be changed after almost every three weeks,its battery malfunctions every now and then.Its cover has turned an ugly murky shade of brownish blue from deep blue.It's smeared with ink..courtesy: Tutun who dropped the ink bottle on the table.And,...here lies the killer as you can see from the above picture,there are two deep holes in the keypad, right where the Cancel and Menu buttons used to be.Reason??...No. I assure you, I'm not eating into it.It's just that,they 4th keypad I bought, was so goddamn tight( what do you call a keypad that refuses to work properly when its certain keys are pressed?Tight keypad?)that I had to almost use my nails to press it and as a result,there are two grooves in it.But then,I've a faithful pen which acts as an excellent substitute for a stylus!

Besides,now,the phone battery seems to have succumbed to the ordeals of old age and a manyyearslong arduous service.In short, it has gone mad!The screen starts flickering suddenly.The torch starts blinking automatically and when you try to switch it off, it's the cellphone which gets switched off in totality!It's like a horror movie,when apparently innocent things like cellphones and doorbells are the ones to signal you of an impending peril.And I don't like to think of all that at night. I'm worried.very very worried.

I don't want to buy a new cell now.In spite of the alluring offer from my parents of getting a new phone,I want to go on using my current phone for a while.At least 3-4 years more.I'm too attached to it.It's the first phone which I could call as entirely mine( notwithstanding the first 3 years when it was almost in Ma's possession). I've a multitude of fond memories associated with it.Once,it used to be the phone that helped people to make up for fights,fallouts et al.It helped lovesick loonabirds to converse for hours when they weren't lucky enough to have access to any other means of communication!It won me my first radio lottery.And many more!Today,that the phone is ill and needs help,people who had actually known it for long,have deserted it and are urging me to buy a new one.

I don't want one.Not for the time being.Be it ugly,useless,with the least number of features(not even polyphonic ringtones and colour),I love it.And I'm going to look after it with single-minded determination.Come disaster may.Just because,things grow old,that doesn't mean we have to chuck them out into the loony bin.

*steely glint in determined eyes*

p.s:I'm not exactly too broke to buy another new keypad.Feeling tad lazy!Will repair it next week.