The Hindu Business Line : They love mobiles now, not mobikes

LOVERS used to walk along Eliot's Beach at sunset, once upon a time, whispering sweet nothings to each other; while young unattached males raced madly past them on mobikes, this way and that, in the hope of attracting some attention to themselves. But those days are now gone. Probably forever.

Lovers can still be seen walking along hand in hand at dusk, whispering sweet nothings - but not to each other. Each carries a cell phone in the other hand, and talks, with an exaggerated animation, to someone at the receiving end. No sooner is one call over, when another comes along. So the gush of sweet nothings goes on uninterrupted.

Problems arise if he finishes his call, and has to hang around, idle, holding her hand limply, while she continues to giggle and coo with the person she has on line. It would not do for the impression to get about that he has no other takers. So he suddenly remembers that he too has friends waiting excitedly to hear from him again.

Sad to say the boys on mobikes, too, are now out of business. Few pretty girls throw as much as a glance in their direction as they race up and down, with the wind in their hair, leaving a trail of smoke in their wake. So they too have started bringing their cell phones along when taking their mobikes to the beach.

The setting sun finds three of four mobikes snugly parked next to each other each evening, their owners astride; or, sometimes, lying on their backs on their bikes, gazing dreamily up at the sky, with a mobile pressed to their ears.