Freedom to Use Mobiles as Jukeboxes

One thing I observed in travels by public transport recently is the increasing dependence on the mobile for entertainment, which as I hear, will go on increasing to a level where the mobile will take over all our bodily functions as well. Right now most people cannot function without the ear phones plugged into their ears and the mobile playing their favorite songs, FM stations and in rare cases indulging in actual conversations. Sometimes people are so involved in their mobiles that they either run over people or get run over by buses or trains, the drivers of which, might be listening to their ear phones as well. (My theory is that the mobiles are the real aliens who have infiltrated our lives and have entered into a conspiracy with some traitors to make the human race separate from one another while promising to make them closer. And we, as always, have fallen for what looks like a good bargain and sold our everything.)

My problem is not so much with the ones whom we have lost already, i.e. the ones who are always with earphones plugged into their ears as a permanent attachment. They are gone. But the ones who have discovered the power of the mobile and the vast number of songs it can accommodate, a feature which they feel the general public should also know of, hear and enjoy. They are driven by purely humanitarian motives and wish development of the society and turn up the volume to max when in buses, trains or public places, holding their mobiles in their hands, and enjoying the music visibly, as they share with family, friends and others.

Unfortunately, these mobiles serve as the neighbourhood pandal whcih plays loud music for no reason at times when you wish a lot of rest and irritate you no end that you think of acts of terror to end it all right then. To make matters worse others also, inspired by the music on the mobiles, feel inclined to show off the features and loudness in their mobiles and they start playing their music too in the restricted space of public areas, like say buses or trains. No one can tell them to shut them off or to plug it, at appropriate places, ears in this case, and they all sit combatively, mobiles in hand, moving their heads to the beat, forcing themselves to have a good time even if it means annihilating the people in the coach who have asked them to shut it off.

Please aliens, take this feature of a loud music player away and provide ear phones that are attached to the mobile phone itself so we can plug their ears with the ear phones (some super glue should do it) and save ourselves the agony. We hope that it is not asking for too much. And for all those who feel that it is their right to play their horrid music loudly at all public places (and look on as if you have composed and sung the songs yourself), please realise that we are not envying you. We are conspiring how to throw you off the bus or the train.