30 June 2008 « What Ho!

30Jun/083

Stolen! My Beloved Sony Ericsson P1i

Yesterday a pick pocket took my beloved Sony Ericsson P1i.

I was buying fish at Yousfguda, Hyderabad and the thief was standing next to me. He was fiddling with a grubby baseball cap near my left shoulder. I glared in his direction a few times but politeness prevented me from digging him with an elbow. My fault. I should have bashed his bloody face in. He vanished after some time and I realized my phone was missing from my shirt pocket after I left the shop.

I frantically tried to call my phone number (94407-01095) but the thief had already switched off the phone. I saw one chap who was wearing a cap just like the thief but the shop keepers in the area vouched for him. His name is Ramu.

I returned home and immediately went to the Jubilee Hills Police Station to report the theft. The Sub Inspector on duty, Mr. Mohan Rao, did not speak English or Hindi. And I don't have any Telugu. Thankfully one of the constable on duty spoke both English and Hindi. I was asked to write a letter to the Inspector-in-charge of the Police Station stating the facts and giving the details of the handset (phone number & IMEI code). Fortunately I have the original bill, Credit Card charge slip and warranty card stamped with the IMEI. The Sub Inspector asked me to come back on Monday morning at 11.00 am to collect the Certificate.

I spent most of Sunday brooding over my lost phone. My P1i was a part of me. It was my Ebook Reader, Email Client, News Reader, Music Player, Movie Player, Camera, Voice Recorder, Notes etc. I have a ton of software including almost the entire Handy Tools suite of software, Mobi Reader, NGPay, GMail, ICICI Mobile Banking, MoneyControl Mobile, Swiss Manager Pro (Symbian UIQ 3), Dictionary, MemoryUp-Mobile RAM & Memory Booster plus many others.

When I went back to the Jubilee Hills Police Station on Monday morning, I had to wait for about an hour. The Sub Inspector called for the application I had submitted on Sunday and asked the clerk to have the Certificate typed up. This took half an hour with the Police Station clerk typing out the details on a standard MS Word template. I was supposed to produce a Rs. 100/- payment receipt from eSeva but they ended up giving me the certificate without this. The constable at the gate had his hand out and it cost me Rs. 200/- to leave the Police Station with my Certificate.

I have prepared letters for the four GSM service operators in Hyderabad requesting them to help track down the stolen phone via the IMEI number. Tomorrow I will visit the corporate office of BSNL (my service provider), Vodafone, Airtel & Tata Indicom. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I may get my phone back but I really don't have much hope.

I spent much of Sunday afternoon on the Sony Ericsson web site looking at phones and comparing them to the P1i. The loss of such an expensive device is a very bad financial blow for me. Added to that is the cost of buying a replacement. And I am afraid and feeling guilty about spending another large sum of money to replace the P1i. Today I checked the prices for the P1i in the major Hyderabad stores and they have come down from the Rs. 20,000/- I paid in Nov 2007 to about Rs. 17,500/-.

I looked at other phones but they just don't compare with my beloved P1i. I realize now that I had fallen in love with my phone and it had become an integral part of my life. It was not just a phone. It was much more than that. It woke me up in the morning and showed me the daily news on the pot. It played music and audiobooks while I drove to and from work and on coffee breaks. It was my camera of choice for day to day photography and I have posted many a photo taken with it to this blog. It was my movie player where I caught up with those movies and old TV shows I have missed or want to see again (converted to 3GP with SUPER). It was also my mobile blogging platform. With it I posted photos and commentary of Sonu's marriage from Bhubaneswar & Cuttack in May 2008. It kept me informed about the Indian financial markets and in touch with my friends via email (my company blocks all POP3 & IMAP traffic other than corporate email) and chat. Perhaps the most important part, it was my ebook reader. I have read more than a 100 books on my P1i since I bought it last November. It was my voice recorder with which I recorded important meetings. This simple feature has saved my goose many a time.

I had cared for it lovingly. There is nary a scratch to mark it's pristine surface in spite of the very heavy use I made of it. Most days it was the last thing I touched (other than the darling wife ) before I fell asleep and the first think I touched when I woke up the next day (to turn off the alarm before it burst my ear drums).

The question I find myself grappling with is - Will I allow a thief to destroy a happy memory by forcing me to buy a less capable mobile phone because I am afraid and guilty of the cost? Force me to compromise on my desired lifestyle?