No More "Nomophobias"

"Pffft Ahahahaha" I giggled and snorted due to the absolutely hilarious scenes in the "Try Not To Laugh" video that I was watching.

I had been studying for the last ten minutes and had decided to take a fifteen minute recess.

(Yup, you read the numbers right).

Well, I was supposed to be studying.

I had opened my phone to Google a doubt in Chemistry, got distracted by my Instagram feed, and let's just say, my fifteen minute break turned out to be an hour long.

Yup. I wasted an hour. 

Let me take you through my life at that point of time.

********

"Can I have you phone for a second?" asked my sister.

"Absolutely not!" I was appalled.

"But I just need it to-"

"No way!" I said.

Staying away from my phone for a second was the most terrorizing situation that I could envision.

I was extremely addicted to my phone and I was not ready to admit that.

I used to take my phone everywhere with me:- to work, dinner, bed and sometimes, even to the washroom!

My camera in selfie-mode was my makeshift mirror.

I used to freak out when I couldn't find my phone even when I'd be holding it in my hands!

Every time I dropped my phone, I felt like I was dropping a baby!

And not to mention, since I used my phone so much, it required to be charged at least thrice a day.

I was so addicted, that one of my friends called me "nomophobic".

That incident scarred me and brought to my attention my level of addiction to my phone.

That, was the beginning of the end.

********

I was sitting in my room; studying math.

"Ping!" I heard the notification alarm.

Immediately, I was deep in my phone.

The math textbook in front of me, long before forgotten.

My dad, who had been watching me, entered my room and said,

"Imagine I give you Rs.86400 everyday."

That caught my attention.

"What will you do with it?" he finished.

I was perplexed.

"Um...what do you mean?"

"Will you spend that money by doing something for the charity, the poor, the needy? Or will you start a business with the money? Will you invest it or will you just spend it on yourself to live a lavish life?"

Was my dad going to give me money?

I was highly puzzled.

I replied by saying, "Dad, I will spend the money on charity, goodwill and philanthropy. I'll donate money to the poor, start a business to provide job opportunities to the underprivileged and, all in all, try to improve the living standards of the people around me. I will never waste the money that you give me."

My dad sadly shook his head.

"Well, that is exactly what you're doing now." he said.

My mouth fell open as I started to form counter arguments.

How was I wasting my time?!

"We are all blessed enough to get an ample amount of time to achieve all our endeavors in life."

"In a day, we have 86400 seconds. A second is worth a million notes of money. Nothing can bring back lost time."

"Today, you wasted your Rs.86400 on your phone. That is what you did yesterday,the day before, the day before and the day before. You don't need money to achieve your dreams. You need passion and the willpower to make use of your time."

"An inch of time is an inch of gold. But you can buy that inch of time with that inch of gold. Don't waste it on something worthless."

Saying this, he left the room.

 And you can quite imagine my reaction.



********

From that day, I decided to beat my phone addiction.

Thirty minutes in a day is that maximum amount of time I'd let myself spend on my phone.

I realized that we're living in an era where capturing moments with our phones is more important than actually living these moments with whoever is beside us.

Sure, mobile phones connect you to a person far away from you. But it takes you away from the people sitting next to you.

I had decided to focus on my future.

Now onward, no more "nomophobias".

You can't do big things if you're distracted by small things.

Put your phone down. Your texts will be there later.

This moment won't.