How A Broken Smartphone Made Me Bankrupt
It Was About 10:30, late into the night And I Was driving back from work on my motorbike. Another normal boring day as usual.
But Sometimes Boring Is Perfectly Cool. Because A Couple Of Seconds Later
My Phone Fell Off The Smartphone Holder. On Raw Tarmac.At 60Kms/hr.
.
.
[hearbeat.heartbeat.heartbeat]
I could literally hear Each One Of them.
I Parked My Bike In A Corner And Went To Pick My Phone That Was Lying On The Centre Of The Road,
Face Down.
And The Case Having Fallen Off.
The Screen Was Dead. It Was A Oneplus 6T.
Easily One Of The Worst Nightmare That Became True This Year.
Anyway, I Went Back Home. Setup Voice Calling On My Alexa And Google Home.
“After All, Smartphones Were Invented For Calling People”
I have facebook messenger on my laptop to stay in touch with people. And people could call on me on Alexa / Google home if they want to talk.
I Suppose It Is A Good Thing This Happened, I Convinced Myself.
Now I Have Some Quality Time In Hand Void Of Any Distractions. At least, For The Next Couple Of Days.
And It Kinda Worked For A Bit Too.
Except I Forget About One Big Thing.
Money ( paisa )
I’m From India And Mobile Payments Have Grown Here By About 1000X In The Last 2 Years.
UPI ( A Peer-To-Peer Mobile Payment System) Has Taken The Country By Storm And 9/10 People In The Country Use It. The Technology links your bank account with your mobile number and enables you to send/receive money through any of the partner apps as long as you had the recipient’s UPI ID.
Everyone from Neighbourhood Kirana Shops To online eCommerce stores Started Accepting UPI in a matter of months.
Me Being A Early Adopter Of Technology, Ditched Cash In My Wallet And Went All-In On UPI Payments, A Year Ago. In fact, I Even Stopped Using My MasterCard Altogether Because It Was A Hassle When Compared To How Amazing UPI Was Within India.
UPI Was That Good.
Super Fast.Seamless.And The Best Part.
No Transactional Charges.
Except I Can’t Use It Now.
Let Me Give You A Picture Of How My Days Usually Are:
Breakfast: Online Order / Swiggy ( UPI Payment )
Commute: Petrol / Gasoline ( UPI Payment )
Lunch: Online Order / Swiggy ( UPI Payment )
Coffee / Snacks : Cafe Nearby ( UPI Payment )
This Is What I Spend More Or Less On A Daily Basis.
Let’s Say This Amounts To About ₹ 400 ( $ 5.59) Per Day.
I Didn’t Have $5.59 In My Wallet To Satisfy My Daily Needs.
And If That Doesn’t Look Bad Enough. Don’t Worry.
It Gets Worse.
I Had My Electricity Bill With A Due Date Coming Up Very Soon.
The Bill Was No More Than $5.But Guess how I Am Used To Paying Them.
Online.
Of course, I can always use Internet banking and my Debit card to pay for stuff/services online, but here in India, every online transaction is protected by an SMS OTP-based system.
So Even Though I Could Always Login And Initiate A Internet Banking / Debit Card Transaction I Can’t Get Through With It Without The SMS OTP.
Looking Back, It Felt Like
My Mobile Number Is What I Am
Because When I Lose Access To Mobile Number I
- Can’t Have Food
- Can’t Commute
- Can’t Pay My Bills
I Can Get My Phone Fixed Easily / Get A New One. But The Thought That All It Takes For Me Go Literally Bankrupt, Is Lose Access Of My Smart Phone,
Is A Scary Scary Thought That Is Going To Stay Etched In My Mind Forever.
