This morning was groggier than usual, as I soon realized as I was about to leave the PJ house.

I forgot my handphone… and house keys.

I knew exactly where they lay – on my bed in the KL house.

Helplessness set in as my mom dropped me off at the bus stop. I used my mom’s handphone to call the KL house, but alas! My dad was already on the way to the PJ house. Despite having a very nice number, he doesn’t use his handphone or remember to turn it on. And now, there was nobody to turn it off for me. (At least people who use message delivery reports will know I haven’t got it…)

Thank goodness my boss was kind enough to let me use her phone to spam my SMS inbox full (my old Nokia 3350 doesn’t have SMS memory on the phone!)

The worse part was that nobody would be at the KL house until 10-11pm. Since I didn’t have the keys, I wouldn’t be able to reunite with my phone sooner! This meant a mandatory night out, but I feel insecure going out without a phone. What a Catch-22.

Ironically, I remembered to take my AA batteries out of the charger.

People who know me know that I always answer phone calls, especially so from unknown numbers (since all my friends are unreliable credit-less prepaid users who end up borrowing their friends’ phones to call/SMS). I always call back missed calls, even unknown ones, to get some idiot who can accidentally call my number and say they didn’t call.

I can only imagine the dramatic missed calls. Passed oppurtunities.

It could even be a movie, playing on the dependence we have on our phones. It starts with the groggy protagonist waking up, passing his handphone and keys on the table. He then goes to work, and paranoia sets in.

The cinemagoers feel for the character as he looms over an ex who will call any minute, a friend in the hospital, a friend who owes him money… he doesn’t know who will call, and that is part of the insecurity. The camera follows him for the day (compressing it into a 90 minute movie). He goes around telling his colleagues that he forgot his phone, divulging his secrets to a colleague he didn’t talk to often anymore (he can’t call his regular phone buddy!)

“Hey, how’s Sarah?”
“Oh, I… dunno. She… disappeared.”
“Haha so who are you after now?”
“Oh well there’s Melissa… she suddenly wants to talk to me again.”
“But last time we talked wasn’t life with her great?”

He finds a friend to twiddle the evening away with, and there might even be a lost-in-the-mall scene. Coins are never enough to get his friend’s handphone. It reminds us of a lost tradition, where we’d be more specific than, “okay see you at KLCC at 8pm“. He could even search frantically for him in the mall.

Oh, and we can hear the protagonist’s thoughts. “Hmmm. If I was John, I’d probably head to Tower Records.” It would be very important for the viewer to feel and relate to the character. I’d probably pick a much younger Tom Hanks for this.

Now you probably are less susceptible to brain cancer than me and are thinking you don’t miss your phone that much. But hey, the movie can serve as a reminder never to become so dependent.