At Beyond the Box, we are constantly thinking of ideas to give something unique, refreshing as well as challenging to our community of writers. Two to Tango was one such endeavour to encourage the participants to work along with another writer as a team and bring about a creative synergy. 66 teams participated in this one-of-its-kind contest and the winners were chosen by an eclectic jury panel comprising of prolific authors Ramendra Kumar, Shilpa Suraj and Apeksha Rao. Below prompt was given to the writers and they were asked to narrate the same story from two different points of view.
Prompt – Write a fictional story in which a character’s life undergoes some kind of major change due to a lost mobile. Feel free to creatively interpret this concept in any genre of your choice.
The runners-up in the kids’ category were Rebecca Stephen and Akshitha Thomas (Team 47). Enjoy their story!
Story Title: WAKING DISASTER
Point of View #1
By Rebecca Stephen
I awoke realizing my alarm didn’t ring. I stretched my hand to reach out to my phone but found it missing. I searched all around the house desperately looking for my phone. I looked up at the clock and realized I would be late if I didn’t get ready for work soon. Hence, I went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Looking in, I saw that there were no eggs. I reached for the back pocket of my jeans when it struck me that my phone wasn’t there. I made a mental note to buy some as I left for work.
I walked to the supermarket as I didn’t have a phone to call a cab. I entered the shop and took the eggs. I went to the cash register and the lady behind had a certain permissiveness to the way she talked and certainly her speech was quite euphonious.
I bought the eggs and left the store.
I work as an assistant for a famous Interior designer. He came up to me and said, “We need 20 curtains in purple.” I replied “Alright. By when?” “Next Friday”, he said and left. During lunch hours, I observed that many of my colleagues were glued to their phones and looked like they were possessed by the devices in their hands. I couldn’t believe that I looked like that to others. I was, for the first time, grateful I had lost my phone.
I went home via bus since I was afraid to walk home alone in the dark. The passenger who sat beside me was an old woman. She said that she had come to visit her grandchild who was born just a few days ago; the excitement in her eyes knew no bounds. I realized that without my phone I was noticing a lot of things I never would have with it.
A few days later, I ran into one of my college friends, Amber. She looked depressed. We decided to meet up for coffee to catch up. Once I met her there, she told me, “I had lost my phone a few months back and it was so hard to function throughout the day. I got fired and my life has been a wreck ever since”. Saying this she burst into tears and I realized that not everyone has the privilege to look for the silver lining in the clouds.
Point of View #2
By Akshitha Thomas
With the sun on my face, I couldn’t do much except wake up. Great, I missed my morning walk again! I stretched out my hand to reach for my phone but felt only the hard wood of my table. Oh! where’s my phone? I wondered. I searched everywhere but still could not spot it. I realized I would have to go to work without it. I got ready and set off to work.
I work as an assistant for the CEO of Design Makeover. As I entered, my boss walked up to me and asked, “Have you received the mail I’ve sent Amber?” “No Ma’am, I’ll check my mail right away,” I answered. I sat at the computer and reached for my phone to check the password which I keep forgetting. I remembered that I’d lost my phone so I couldn’t even open my mail because I couldn’t recollect the password. I walked to my boss’s office and told her my problem. She was a bit upset at my carelessness but she helped me out a bit.
I left for home and went to the supermarket to get maple syrup. I stood at the cashier counter to check out. I reached for my phone since I paid everything with online bank transfers. I looked in my hand bag and found nothing. I was so frustrated.
All through the next month, I kept forgetting things because I didn’t have my phone to keep track. Because of this, I got angry a lot until the day I was fired. With no income, I fell behind on paying my rent and other bills and got evicted. I became homeless and finally succumbed to depression. I was still not ready to blame myself and my attachment to my phone as the cause of all my problems.
A few days later, I ran into one of my college friends, Christina. She was pretty cheerful. We decided to meet up for coffee . Once I met her there, she told me, “I had lost my phone a few months back and it was so hard to function throughout the day but then I realized that I didn’t need my phone to be happy.” I realized that every cloud has a silver lining indeed. We don’t really need phones in our life. They’re not a necessity unless we make them one. Our ancestors lived pretty well without phones, so why can’t we?