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It's your CALL
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Panels - from Garfield and WWW stars to girly Hello Kitty themes Pouches that can alternate between the official and disco look Lamination - to protect from scratches and coffee-spills Stickers that light up to alert you about calls Flashy cords to wear the phone on your neck
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IF IT'S not hot pink, it had better be bright green. Or sunshine yellow. Or, even better, a flamboyant medley of all three, with ruby red arrows shooting through.
Psst... This is the acid test. If you are now cringing with horror and crying out in pain at the visions this first paragraph just conjured up, here's some bad news. You've just failed it.
Because, today, if it's cool, it had better scream. Discreet phones with polite ring tones are so passé, it's just a question of time before their pictures are posted right beside the dinosaurs in history books. Look around you, and you'll realise that phones have evolved from being mere instruments of communication to becoming important outlets of expression. It's like the blue jeans story all over again. Bell bottoms, boot legs, faded, distressed, high waist, low waist, no waist... through the years, hipsters have always personalised their jeans — even if it meant washing them in acid or borrowing their grandmothers' sewing basket and using it's contents to rip, sew, embellish and fray the pockets, hems, waists and knees.
But let's get back to the phones, before we get side tracked. First, there were ring tones. Then came the cords, pouches, faceplates, panels, stickers, flashing lights and other strange thingamajigs that even the shopkeepers don't know the names of. "That? Oh... (thinking furiously)... we just call it the "light flashing cord. Um... It's like a disco light, actually. But for phones."
So, if you have a cell phone today and you want to pretend you're `with it' (if you were really with it, you wouldn't need our help now, would you?), here's what you have to do.
Flashy colours
First, change the panel. The only problem here, is deciding what you want. Besides a flashy collection of colours — most cell phone stores look like disco balls that have swallowed kaleidoscopes — you can find panels on everything from dragons breathing flames to the latest in race cars. There are panels devoted to cartoons and popular movies; WWF fighters and Garfield; magnificently bad tempered tigers and girly pink `Hello Kitty' themes.
"It's a funky way to express your personality," says the owner of Balecha Cell Zone in Spencer Plaza. And, if you think you have the kind of personality that deserves a high-tech phone, but fate has stuck you with a brick with a dial-pad instead, there's help for this too — available at your friendly neighbourhood `open market'.
Old looks new
"People who have older models, but want everybody to think they're carrying the latest models can use `conversion panels'" says one shopkeeper pulling out a batch of them.
"So, for example, if you have a Nokia 2300, you put the `Nokia 7250' panel on it."
For those of you who don't think having `Zena, the warrior princess' emblazoned across your phone will do much for your image at board meetings, there are pouches in which you can carry your phones. Like panels, people tend to buy more than one pouch, so they can alternate between the "official and disco" look, says one young man, whose office pouch is in staid brown leather, while his party pouch is a metrosexual lime green. While some of the most interesting pouches are the flamboyant Chinese ones available for about Rs. 150 all over the city, everyone seems to be getting into the act now. So handicraft shops are stocking pretty cloth pouches covered in mirrors, while leather shops like Hidesign have an array of them in prim black and brown leather. Meanwhile, Origin, the personal accessories brand from Java Green (Reliance Web World's Coffee Shop), has recently come out with a stylish collection of pouches specially created by their in-house designers for the Reliance phones — though they do fit other models. "Java Green is a lifestyle, a social brand, a connect with the customer," says Anil Arjun, general manager, Reliance, while one of his designers pulls bright cell phone pouches off a stand and spreads them across the table. "So, when we decided to begin merchandising, we decided we didn't want to just go with a T Shirt, or caps." Cell phone pouches, on the other hand, are trendy and, obviously, a great way to market the Reliance brand.
The range, which is priced between Rs. 50 and Rs. 250, showcases designs in leather and mica, and has been created "keeping a wide audience in mind, from college students to executives." So they have everything from a swingy pink pouch, which the girls are reportedly buying with gusto, to more... um... masculine designs, including one, which doubles as a wallet.
Damage control
And for those of you who want a more permanent solution to coffee spills and worn-out keypads, there's another option — lamination. "You basically put a plastic sheet over the phone, use a blowtorch and 400 watts of heat, and the phone gets laminated," says one shop keeper, adding that though it's a cheap and easy solution to scratches, (It costs about Rs. 100) the heat "can indirectly damage your phone."
If all this is not funky enough, you can use a cord that flashes every time the phone rings to wear the phone around your neck, or stick a teddy bear sticker that lights up like the Diwali sky to ensure that you never miss calls again because you can't find your phone between the lipsticks, pens and other junk in your handbag. You can also give your phone a bushy racoon's tail, or attach a crystal bead necklace to it; cover it in yellow smileys or give it a jazzy crystal keypad. And, best of all, when you get bored all you have to do is pull everything off and start building your phone all over again.
Fashion Extras
*Panels - from Garfield and WWW stars to girly Hello Kitty themes
*Pouches that can alternate between the official and disco look
*Lamination - to protect from scratches and coffee-spills
*Stickers that light up to alert you about calls
*Flashy cords to wear the phone on your neck
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
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