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A little too much!

Recently, during my last trip to a town right in the centre of the Hindi heartland, I had the fortune of interacting with some friends who would be relatives. A chance conversation with some female members of the society jogged my memory back to a time when my girls were developing into late teenagers, growing horns and their pointed devil's tails were sprouting. 

My wife was getting acquainted with two female members of the family. This is somewhat the direction the conversation took. 

"Hi, since we know each other now," wifey said. "Maybe we should exchange numbers and contact each other!"

Our hosts, almost in unison, replied, "...but you have our husband's numbers. You can call that number. "

"No, I don't have your numbers."

"We share the same phone." was the reply.

I could see my wife's eyes pop in amazement. 

"But, but I am sure you want to check your Facebook, WhatsApp, etcetera."

The homely girls cooly replied, "Nah, we don't need them."

"How about when you go out shopping and need to call someone?" wifey asked.

Again, the girls looked at each other, kind of bewildered. "When we are at home, you can contact us at the home landline. When we go out with our husbands, we use their phones!"

It looked much like a non-issue to them.

Ten years previously, my wife and I were in the same predicament. My teenage daughters were up in arms like they felt it was their right to own a mobile phone at that age. In their eyes, it was a natural passage of rites to be initiated into a digital world to mark their presence as human beings on Earth. All rules and regulations on parental controls just went down the drain. It is all water under the bridge now, all done and dusted. 

It looks like we had initiated ourselves into the first world by acquiring their problems. We were not worrying about basic needs but digital availability and access. There was a need for digital expression and digital freedom. We were not talking about covering the bare essentials but demanding the right to expose more than needed.

We are trapped in a conundrum between one side that demands too much versus the other that needs too little. When you have little, you demand more. When you have in abundance, you want less.

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Location: London, UK

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