Those SMS

These days we can get excited or even alarmed when an sms comes through our hand phone. One such sms reaches us today from John Jennrich. It says "Aisya ate 4 sticks of satay. Watch out Malaysia ! There is a new kid on the block ! " Little Aisya is only three years and much doted upon by her parents John and Farah and why not, because she is their only daughter and child for that matter. But at three and eating four sticks of satay ! That's news indeed more especially when we imagine that the satay over in Chicago must be a lot bigger than ours here since it is a meat country over there. Our response to the sms is simply this "Wow, that's a meat eater all right. She is a trade mark of our family who loves eating satay ! "

To us grandparents it is always heartening to hear news of our grandchildren, wherever they are but of course it is only natural for the ones that are far away or overseas, such news to be more welcome since we cannot see them everyday ! Only a few weeks ago, Yasmin gives Ainul a call saying that the kids, meaning Aiki and Hibiki never fails to mention us ever since their last visit to our house. Hence Yasmin too longs for us both as well as other family members to come over to Kota Kinabalu to stay with them for a short holiday. At that time, Sabri is about to go for his open heart surgery. Both Nuruiani and Sabri then say that they most certainly would welcome the idea of going to Farazil's place where Sabri can recuperate but of course the whole exercise is dependent upon the availability of those cheap flights via Air Asia. Search as we might on the Internet, we cannot get any cheap fare as advertised by the flight company. It is always the case, when we decide on something like this, it is always too late. Other commuters will have grabbed those tickets. I use to know a guy who freely books all those zero tickets, good for all year vacations and when I say to him what if he decides not to take on any one of them. He says it is all right. He just have to forfeit Fifty Ringgit penalty, and this still fully compensates for the rest that he is able to use. It makes sense, doesn't it ?

Nowadays children grow up very fast indeed and they learn new things very fast too. The use of the hand phones has become as a matter of fact to all of them. Only a few weeks back, I receive several phone calls on my hand phone and I am suprised that it comes from Omar. He is just touching five. I cannot imagine how he should know about my phone number when all a long I have assumed that he cannot possibly know and remember my number. That he does indeed is proven from the call that he makes then. When I ask Aida just how Omar does it, she says he merely asks Aida which number to dial. Since Aida has already preset mine, it is merely pressing the right button number and presto it is connected to mine ! So he does not know my number series after all but uses his intelligence to get himself connected to me. That's kids these days !

We receive regular sms and calls from Maisarah who is now trying her best to catch up with her studies for the coming end year standard six exam. Both Farahat and Mazuin are desperately having her online to monitor her workbook assignments. We are very fascinated the other day when Maisarah comes to visit us with her parents and she is confined to our upstairs room to do her homework on the PC, and there from downstairs Farahat shows us he can see exactly how Maisarah performs ! Kids cannot play truant on their homework anymore these days for as long as they are on line. It is the marvel of technology these days. I can well recall my childhood days when we make all sorts of excuses not wanting to do our homework or even hide the books and declaring them temporarily lost, and our parents could accept those craps ! But then we are not that naughty.

These sms are the best form of modern day communication. It is cheap and very effective and most certainly most accurate information wise. If in the old days we use the telegram to send urgent message or the telex for the banks, commercial houses and government offices, the sms today serves and replaces those now. Of course I am not sidelining the PC here. It is even more accurate and fast too. Many years ago I use to scold my children for wasting money on phone calls, more especially at that time when only house phones are available. Their calls make a hefty bill for us to pay each month but worse of all when they hang on the phone for hours rendering same to be deprived of others use. Hence there is a lot of scolding and lectures of the misuse of the house phone then. But all of a sudden, we feel relief. Each of them owns their own hand phones ! Nowadays it is very odd indeed for anyone not to own one although I do have friends who refuse to have one and consider it a nuisance besides having to pay for services they hardly ever use. Their reasoning is very simple though. The public phones are easily accessible nowadays as compared to days of old when the phone is a scarcity indeed.

I have a string of sms members who exchange and forward those innocent jokes to amuse each other. Of course at times these can be quite costly too when cumulatively the monthly sms count totals more than a thousand ! In the prepaid days of Digi, I spend not less than six hundred ringgit a month with Ainul's combined. But now with the new Digi postpaid, it is only two hundred ringgit and taking into account calls to the States too ! Sms is really the best happening to all of us apart from sending mails through the computer of course. With the computer, not everyone has or knows how to use them. Most of my MCKK classmates remain computer illiterate and for some even the use of the sms is still beyond their capability ! I have a lot to thank Farahat for giving me his old black and white PC to play with then. Of course I panic a lot then whenever I lost all that I have written when I happen to press the wrong button which deletes everything. In those days, the PC is not user friendly like it is now. One false move and everything gets wiped out ! I am not saying that I am any better at the PC now but suffices for my essential needs. I am not a surfer like most people are for the simple fact I prefer to read written materials in books. Reading through the PC unless otherwise it is printed out can be very strenuous on the eyes and neck. Hence I abandone the idea. I have got friends who are excellent with these Internet surfing and hence I benefit from the materials that they mail to me. Of course writing those monthly articles for our web site becomes easy with the use of the PC since corrections no longer involve those manual erasers such as on those old typewriters . Life is certainly made easy for modern day writers. Thanks to modern technology ! It is not suprising to see so many books on virtually any subject you can think of being written by people these days and produced at such rapid rate too. It is all because of the computer which makes writing so easy these days. I have myself benefited from this. How else could I have been able to write all these articles these past years if not aided by my faithfully PC !

As earlier mentioned, children are quite adapt at the use of the sms to send creative messages to each other. By that I mean , they are able to create drawings to accompany their sms. I have seen with my own eyes how well Maisarah create such drawings for my use. The accompaniment of music with the sms is yet to be seen but I am positive in no time, this too will come into being. The availability of this modern technology has made us very creative too in one way or other. There is no denying that the use of the sms are subjected to great abuse these days when they are used for spreading rumours on personalities and incidence that never take place. Most recent is the acceptance of declaration of divorce by Muslims through the sms ! People also get cheated by sms offers of winnings on stakes that they have never taken part in such as the recent one on the Akademi Fantasia 4 winners bet. Whilst on the subject of sending in sms votes on reality show winners, I cannot see the logic of determining the winner by sms votes. One such shows is the million ringgit singing contest which as a result of sms votes the winner is no singer at all by virtue of voice and other talents combined. Imagine the professional singers could be beaten by these amateurs ! I am glad that recently when the proposal to pit the professionals against the AF winners in a contest that will be determined 40% by real judges and the rest 60% by sms votes, never goes through. That will certainly make a mockery of music ! Sometimes, I just wonder if we have at all progressed here !

The marvel about the sms is that when the real phone calls fail to get through to the person we wish to call, the sms will get through somehow. Sms contents are more precise and accurate than spoken words on the phone. Only thing is, these sms come with abbreviated lettering which at times are difficult to decipher. With most phones, long messages will have to be apportioned in separate pages. It is all right though since cost wise, it is negligible compared to the normal long winded conversations on the phone which can be costly if these are overseas connection. However these sms can even come to us in the unexpected hours of the night when we are sound asleep.

And yet I am still looking forward to suprised sms from my grandchildren. Receiving these will certainly make my day ! Maisarah and Faiq have done it and now we look forward to Muhammad, Omar, Emir, Aiki, Hibiki, Marsya, Affi and perhaps from Aisya herself one day ! Aisya already talks quite well on the phone. Her next stage will surely be the sms. That will be the day indeed ! With the sms goings on, we cannot complain of being lonely or isolated anymore. The trick is to get in on the sms circuit and you have it made !

writtten by Tunku Farid