My Iphone 3Gs from home. I deliberately refused to get a higher Iphone so that I could have a smart phone in India. However, the genius that I am decided to upgrade it to iOS5 because I was bored. I arrived in India to learn iOS5 can not be unlocked. The Iphone is now a useless, but expensive piece of equipment I have to keep an eye on.
A Nokia brick phone with basic dialing capabilities that has made it incredibly difficult to SMS people in a country where texting is only secondary to speaking in person. My dignity suffers a little when I pull this number out of my purse in front of the sea of Blackberries and God-knows-whats in the metro.
A Droid that my friend lent over to me that could not for the life of me pick up the data service I bought. Nor could I really figure out how to use it. All I could figure out was how to make it say "DROOOIIDDD" to me.
But today, Rahul and I went downstairs to the lobby of Cybercity and purchased a Blackberry. He called me and asked if I had a free moment to walk over to the nearest phone shop. I said "seriously??" (I had been begging him for 2 weeks now). He said "well, it's long overdue right?" Finally!
This has been a life-changing experience in Delhi. Internationally, I think the Blackberry is a lot more popular than any other phone. BBM is the most normal form of communication here. When I had a Blackberry in the US, it took me about 3 or 4 months of owning it to have 20-some contacts on BBM. Here in India, in a little over two weeks, I have 15. Oddly, I don't even text anymore. In fact, SMSing costs more money than having a data plan and then using BBM or Whatsapp. For INR 399, I have unlimited 3G data for a month. That's like $7.50. Not to go on about Blackberrys, but the culture around having this phone is so interesting. On BBM, everyone has a status message and a display pic. Kids here update both of these things about 3 to 4 times daily.
It wasn't until I went phone shopping that I realized how expensive cell phones are without the packages and plans we have in the US. Without a plan, a nice Blackberry or an iPhone or a Droid is something like $500-$1000!!! I had no idea.
A solid connection to the US, free SMSing through BBM and whatsapp in India, and e-mails from Hopkins and work when my home internet acts up.
Hard to admit it, but I actually feel relieved.
No comments:
Post a Comment