"CELL PHONES NOT ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT"

Cell phones in colleges and schools are a sensitive subject. It was like since the invention of a cell phone something else was invented, a rule saying students aren’t supposed to bring the hand held gizmos to school! A decade ago a sign boards reading “cell phones banned in colleges” pasted everywhere in the campus of a college would be like a bizarre sci-fi movie prop. Now it is very far from that, in fact it’s become a very vital necessity like benches or desks. But is it working? NO! Every now and then I get guys from my college to make me ask the HOD to excuse them that one single time, and they tell that they won’t bring the cell phones from then on. And I’m the one who always has to see the worst part of the temperamental HOD’s wrath. The professors don’t check the students for any smuggled in cell phones, but some exceptionally “bright” students actually manages to get caught with one glued to his ear. With acres of space, and a million places to hide comfortably and talk to their friends, some idiots actually get caught.

                                         Once when I was in school, I really saw how much teachers were not kidding about the whole cell phone “situation” in schools! One fine day they asked all the 11^th and 12^th class students to come to the indoor basketball court, and a batch of sirs start frisking us all over for anything that isn’t meant to be there.( reminded me a lot of one of those mafia movies where a rival boss checks all of the gang members who come to see him ) no one got caught there. But we had a lot more surprises for the day, the leader and the assistant leader went up to their classes along with a teacher to search for any thing “illegal” in the student’s bags. While the rest of us sat there with a few teachers looking over us like terrorists holding hostages at gun point. And they were going to shoot anyone who broke the school’s law.

                                         I don’t think they found any cell phones, but a lot of other interesting artifacts turned up in the sudden raid. A few standout loot they found were, a matchbox ( no cigarettes and the guy from whose bag it was found never smoke) , a magazine which is not exactly family friendly ( that’s as nice as I can put it) .

                 But things did change in college, well they still confiscated cell phones, for a little while-for instance commerce department’s HOD pretends to be strict but a few minutes of begging will break her heart.(yes, me being my class representative also means I take on the role of lead beggar)  But if the students have to call up a college which is organizing a program or some sponsors for programs in our own college-the professors don’t see the hypocrisy staring at their faces, when they ask us to call them right away, or in some instances borrowing a student’s phone to do the job. I am going to leave you with a photo demonstrating my friend’s meek attempt to protest against the “don’t bring cell phones to college” rule. Hope they change the rule, and I hope I find one good reason for a student to buy a cell phone.

p.s. ya I think students don’t really NEED cell phones. Go ahead call me a buzz kill, my friend call me that every time I come up with my idea!