The True Story Of The Cell Phone That Died

Where should I insert the SIM card?

I was about to call a number I had gotten through one of my contacts. I wanted to inquire about a really good opportunity in downtown Toronto to, for once and all put me and my car out of the misery of a 3 hour daily commute when my phone died.

At first, I thought it is one of the many inconveniences my cell phone had been causing me for the previous few months so I restarted the phone. It didn’t. I tried over a dozen times until I realized this time it is different. My phone had simply died and there was no way to revive it. I went to a repair shop, called the mobile network customer service, looked online for discussion groups and tips on troubleshooting with no luck. It was then when I realized I had lost all my contacts and anything I had on that phone was for all intends and purposes gone.

What an awful feeling. Is that how people feel when they lose a loved one? Is that how one feels after a break up or divorce? Is that how an Olympic athlete feels when she comes fourth by a millisecond and is kept off the podium? Why did I save all my contacts on the phone and not my SIM? Why? 

Then I thought, but there had to be a way out of this; wait! I can send an email to all my contacts and tell them to send me their numbers, it may be inconvenient but at least I can get back all those 200 numbers I never call. It was then that I realized the true tragedy of my predicament: I had lost all my pictures and videos, anything I had saved on my phone for more than 3 years was gone: the weddings, family visits, birthdays and anything I thought was worth taking my clunky phone out to take a picture of. 

You cannot imagine the utter despair and sadness I felt at that moment. The pain was so intense, the grief so massive that I went into fetal position and started to cry like a little girl. Tears were flowing like a river running through a sun-dry valley. I kept asking myself why I hadn’t backed up my phone knowing the risk. What have I done to suffer such agony, such unbearable pain, such immeasurable loss? 

I tried to pull myself together. Life is full of challenges and I was now facing one of the worst a human being can face. I have always taken pride in being a survivor no matter what the circumstance and I decided, darn it, if I have to send a mass email and ask for everyone’s number again I’ll do it. I’ll even take the unthinkable step of actually calling some of my friends on this thing called Telephone which we carry with us but seldom use to actually call anyone, and ask them if they have copies of pictures I’d lost. I will suffer the indignity of checking other people’s Facebook walls to find those blurry, ugly images I used to post straight from my cell phone twenty at a time which nobody wanted to see but everyone “liked”. 

Worst of all,  and now that I can no longer stare at a 4 inch LCD screen for a few hours at a time to fill the unbearable emptiness I feel within when removed from social network, I will actually look at people’s faces and do this thing some call “converse” to fill some of the void in my life (the last time I did this face to face talking thing was, oh I hardly remember, in a birthday party where I looked at the birthday boy and said “happy birthday”. What a strange feeling that was. I had the urge to text him even though he was 5 inches away from me and I could hardly hold the phone without touching his belly). 

Oh! The horror, the horror! To think I may actually have to carry a 4 minutes conversation with a sentient being. Not since the Vietnam War one has been subjected to such humiliation.

I struggled to come to terms with this life changing experience. I had heard and read in tweets about great men such as Mandela and Gandhi who had risen to the occasion in order to make man’s life better and more dignified. All of a sudden, and as if by a miracle I lifted my phone, took the SIM card out and cried out loud: “I shall insert you in a different mobile phone, just to see if there is hope. I believe I shall overcome”. At that moment I felt like one of those legendary men on course to change history. I inserted the SIM card in my spare cell phone and, what do you know?! I had actually saved all of my contacts. So basically, all this blog was for nothing. 

Sorry to waste your time. I have to go now to post a few pictures of my half eaten salad on my profile. Make sure you check it out.