Stay tuned out for real connections.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
A few months ago, I went to Delhi to attend a competition conducted by a reputable institution. It had participants from across India. Complying with the competition norms, I had deposited the mobile phone in the vault and ventured into a waiting room. I was awestruck by the ambience of the room which had a stupendous round table with comfy rolling chairs. There were a few people inside chattering in Hindi.
Initially, I was reluctant to interact with them as I am not very fluent in Hindi. After some moments, a person from Uttar Pradesh with a relentless positivity on his face came and shook hands with me. He interacted with me as if we were well acquainted. Gradually, I began to interact with the people over there. They hailed from different States such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
None of us had mobile phones with us. With no other option in the pipeline, we started discussing various topics such as politics, evolution of the state, cinema, culture, language and food habits. As time passed, our banter and rants were reinforced. It was like a laughter riot. I was literally blown away by the cultural, linguistic and regional diversity transcending the States of India. We stitched a very good connection with each other putting the fact that we were competitors on the backburner. I could well empathise why the phrase “unity in diversity” resonates well with India.
The competition and the camaraderie have taught me two valuable lessons. One is that people tend to interact with each other much better when they are away from their smartphones. All people have something to express and all they need is a good listener and not someone who scrolls the feed on their phones and listens half-heartedly. These phones which initially evolved as a tool to embolden connectivity have the inherent cons of luring much of the valuable time of the people. It is only a means to pass time but not an end in itself. Digital detoxification and empathising with the emotional need of the people is highly needed in this technology-driven world. The second lesson is that there is no better teacher in the world than travel. The amount of exposure and the type of people we meet during travel teaches some inevitable lessons which no book in the world could have taught. Had I thought that Delhi was far away from my house and had dropped the plan to attend this competition I could have lost the golden chance of gaining these connections and learning about the diversity of our nation.
After the conclusion of the competition and my sojourn in Delhi, I took a metro to reach the airport. As I boarded the metro, I was perplexed to see that almost 90% of the people inside the train had in-ear headphones with hands glued to their mobile phones. It is time to introspect with a question: do we need to disconnect mobiles to connect with people?
rishidevmahadevan@gmail.com
Published – June 15, 2025 04:00 am IST
