Aren't mobile phones fascinating? who doesn’t love them? Even kids who are 2-3 years old use them for watching videos and playing games. It is very fun and addicting. But is the addiction required when we ride our motorcycle?As far as I have noticed out of 10, 5 people have their earphones in their ears when they are riding, either attending calls or listening to music. 2 of them are busy balancing the phone between their shoulder and ear to attend calls, or maybe their pillion holds the phone for them, what joy! They are learning the perfect position to maintain the center of gravity between the shoulder and the ear. And the next 2 people get helmets that perfectly fit the phone between the cheek pads and the ear. I’m sure my friend will kill me for sure after he reads this because he was the one who introduced me to the awesome helmet with a phone integrated technology. And the 1 person, can be a sensible person who doesn’t want to attend calls for safety or maybe he just forgot his phone or earphone back home.
Alright sometimes I can bear with the two wheeler phone users, but I get tears (sarcastic) when I look at people inside a car wearing earphones and attending calls, man you have a Bluetooth facility in almost all cars, else just get a Bluetooth, if you don’t want to get a Bluetooth just turn on the speaker on you phone and keep the phone in the cup holder or the phone holder and speak loud. Since the car is a closed object, using earphones? I’m sure the driver will not hear anyone honking the horn.
Let’s get back to motorcycles; I love the awesome quote on the traffic signals, where there is a picture of Lord Ganesha where it is written below him, not everyone gets a head replacement like him. And I must also appreciate the S-Bike feature that Samsung have introduced in their Indian devices.
Once I noticed this happening, in a signal. The signal was red and people were waiting. There was a youngster without a helmet and was wearing earphones and listening to music. A small girl maybe 5-7 years old was sitting with her mom on a pink Scooty, near the youngster. The small girl called the youngster, he pulled off his earphone, I was amused to hear the message that the small child conveyed to the youngster, she told him please don’t listen to music and ride your bike, my uncle died recently doing the same. The youngster felt really bad and put back the earphone into his pocket and promised the child he will never do it again and gave her an HI-5 too.
I was so happy with the concern the little child had over not using the phone while riding. Moreover, I wanted to appreciate her for the courage she had to tell someone and keep them safe. I wanted to appreciate the child, but the signal turned green and they started moving, all I could do was show her the super gesture.
Listening to music while riding is very bad, it will cancel out all the surrounding noises, ignore the horn sounds, what if someone behind you crashes and you don’t notice that because you are plugged into high volume music.
Phone between the shoulder and ear, what if something comes in between while riding? The head remains tilted in this position, it can’t take a sudden problem and react as when the brain reacts to when the head is upright. It is always said that men can concentrate only on one work and they do it the best possible way. Speaking and riding are 2 works if some hindrance comes, either they will drop the phone or the motorcycle. The phone can be fixed easily, but something to the body can’t be fixed easily.
Everyone’s given only one life, enjoy it to the core, don’t let it go waste by using the phone while riding. There are many people longing to live and feel blessed. Stay safe, Ride Hard and always remember once again DO NOT USE PHONE WHILE RIDING! :)
Picture Credit: The Hindu
By: Rishath Suresh