Manic Mobiles in India
Today I called a business associate’s phone to get some important information and the ring tone was a two decade-old Indian film song- ‘Mera Dil bhee kitna pagal hai yeh pyaar jo tumko karta hai.Par saamne jab tum aate ho, kuch bhee kehne se darta hai…’. Which translates roughly as ‘My heart is so silly to love you. But when you are in front of me it is too scared to say anything…..’
Actually it’s a nice, romantic and melodious song but not quite what you expect to hear when you call your financial consultants on a mega-city project!
Its really bizarre how the film song-ring tones have caught so many people’s fancy in India. In most other parts of the world where I’ve travelled/ lived, I have seen mainly teenagers and college students having proper songs as ring tones. Of course there are always a few ‘grown-ups’ who go through a phase of trying out different songs as ring tones, but the majority of the population is usually OK with just the nokia beep beeps, tring trings, buzzes or at most the instrumental music of their favourite chart toppers.
Its only in India where, more often than not, a call to someone will ensure that you get your daily dose of one of the following:
Then there is the stoic, ex-army officer client who has another all-time Hindi music favourite as a ring tone, one that describes the bollywood hero’s love for an unknown girl in a most poetic fashion – ‘Ek ladki ko dekha to…’.
Of all the ring tones playing, I find the religious ones the most difficult to take. Surely it is wrong to impose your belief in a faith on those who call you?! Besides, if the owner is so religious he completely misses the benefit of listening to his/ her favourite Hindu ‘bhajan’ or ‘aarti’ unless he is in the strange habit of calling himself up at regular intervals!
An interesting moment also came recently when some colleagues were chairing a telecon and wanted to get one of these 'Hindu religious ring tone' guys to plug in. Everyone around the table listened to about 45 seconds of 'Mata ki aarti' [Prayer for a Goddess] ring tone before the guy finally answered his mobile and joined in. Well, no harm in invoking some gods and godesses before an important teleconference I guess!
Another thing about using mobile phones in India are the crazy number of ghost-calls and SMS sdverts one receives daily. It seems the default status on all phone schemes is ‘YES I'm Game’ to everything. It takes a while for many new and even some seasoned users to figure out how to stop these texts and marketing calls from bombarding you. Once you’ve given the instructions, it takes about 45 days for the firm to block them out. The SMSes from your phone company will still come as they "improve your mobile phone experience by providing limited but useful information".
So, in the fastest growing mobile phone market of the world (350 million users in 2010 as per http://trendsniff.com/2009/02/22/mobile-subscribers-china-india-2009/ and going up to 500 million by end of this 2010) each person is subjected to at least 1.5 months of ‘free adverts’. The maths is staggering and so is the marketing opportunity. Imagine if you even got just 5% of these users to respond to your spiel!
One thing is assured though - you need never feel lonely when you have a mobile phone with you here! So what if your friends don’t call you, or your partner is always too busy, or your family forgets about you. Every few hours, the automated advert will have a friendly lady telling you in a high-pitched sing-song voice why this weekend, the Fun Bazaar Sale is the best place to get your food mixer and a Special Free Gift ! And straight after that the SMS-service will give you an important ‘Love Tip’ charging just Rs 1 : “ If you had a fight with your spouse, surprise her with a gift this evening.”
Viva la Indian Mobile Phone Industry !
Actually it’s a nice, romantic and melodious song but not quite what you expect to hear when you call your financial consultants on a mega-city project!
Its really bizarre how the film song-ring tones have caught so many people’s fancy in India. In most other parts of the world where I’ve travelled/ lived, I have seen mainly teenagers and college students having proper songs as ring tones. Of course there are always a few ‘grown-ups’ who go through a phase of trying out different songs as ring tones, but the majority of the population is usually OK with just the nokia beep beeps, tring trings, buzzes or at most the instrumental music of their favourite chart toppers.
Its only in India where, more often than not, a call to someone will ensure that you get your daily dose of one of the following:
- A ‘Evergreen’ Indian film songs from the 60s
- The latest Bollywood hit song
- A mushy romantic number
- Hindu prayer songs or ‘aarti’ [and possibly other religion prayer chants too]
Then there is the stoic, ex-army officer client who has another all-time Hindi music favourite as a ring tone, one that describes the bollywood hero’s love for an unknown girl in a most poetic fashion – ‘Ek ladki ko dekha to…’.
Of all the ring tones playing, I find the religious ones the most difficult to take. Surely it is wrong to impose your belief in a faith on those who call you?! Besides, if the owner is so religious he completely misses the benefit of listening to his/ her favourite Hindu ‘bhajan’ or ‘aarti’ unless he is in the strange habit of calling himself up at regular intervals!
An interesting moment also came recently when some colleagues were chairing a telecon and wanted to get one of these 'Hindu religious ring tone' guys to plug in. Everyone around the table listened to about 45 seconds of 'Mata ki aarti' [Prayer for a Goddess] ring tone before the guy finally answered his mobile and joined in. Well, no harm in invoking some gods and godesses before an important teleconference I guess!
Another thing about using mobile phones in India are the crazy number of ghost-calls and SMS sdverts one receives daily. It seems the default status on all phone schemes is ‘YES I'm Game’ to everything. It takes a while for many new and even some seasoned users to figure out how to stop these texts and marketing calls from bombarding you. Once you’ve given the instructions, it takes about 45 days for the firm to block them out. The SMSes from your phone company will still come as they "improve your mobile phone experience by providing limited but useful information".
So, in the fastest growing mobile phone market of the world (350 million users in 2010 as per http://trendsniff.com/2009/02/22/mobile-subscribers-china-india-2009/ and going up to 500 million by end of this 2010) each person is subjected to at least 1.5 months of ‘free adverts’. The maths is staggering and so is the marketing opportunity. Imagine if you even got just 5% of these users to respond to your spiel!
One thing is assured though - you need never feel lonely when you have a mobile phone with you here! So what if your friends don’t call you, or your partner is always too busy, or your family forgets about you. Every few hours, the automated advert will have a friendly lady telling you in a high-pitched sing-song voice why this weekend, the Fun Bazaar Sale is the best place to get your food mixer and a Special Free Gift ! And straight after that the SMS-service will give you an important ‘Love Tip’ charging just Rs 1 : “ If you had a fight with your spouse, surprise her with a gift this evening.”
Viva la Indian Mobile Phone Industry !
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