Mummy, I dunked your iPhone

In February this year 36 yearold imitation jewellery designer Adiba Khanum was discussing an order with karigars at her Mira Road residence When she turned around to pick up a mug of coffee to her horror she found her iPhone worthu00a0Rs 19000 dunked in the beverage Her two yearold son Khalid giggled from behind the door Thirtythree yearold Adnan Adebin looks on while his daughter Zaara plays a game on his Samsung Galaxy smartphone PicDatta Kumbhar ldquoWorking from home allows me to keep an eye on my child but having a crawling baby in your workspace has its pitfalls too With my first phone I lost my contacts excel sheets and ordersrdquo says Khanum It took the technician two days to retrieve some data from the memory card while the rest was gone for good A few months later Khanum lost her Blackberry Curve worth R9000 to Khalidrsquos insatiable teething itch ldquoThis time Khalid began using it as a chew toy It became impossible to separate the twordquo she recalls Finally she gave up and decided to let the baby play with his lsquonew chew toyrsquo and moved on to a Samsung Galaxy Tab Khanum no longer frets at the thought of Khalid flinging the Blackberry around like a Frisbee or digging his teeth into it She has her Samsung Galaxy Tab intact with all the data and contacts locked away in her topmost drawer This is not a oneoff case Working parents who own an army of highend gadgets for work and pleasure are having miniheart attacks when their expensive gadgets meet tragic deaths at the hands of their oblivious kids The loss of data not to forget the inconvenience of losing all your contacts and the cost of the expensive phone can leave one in tears u00a0quite literally A toy called an iPhone In spite of having a room full of toys event management professional Sashin Shahrsquos four yearold daughter Neona only wanted to play with mummyrsquos iPhone ldquoAlthough she was only two at the time every time she laid her hands on it she would push randomly at the touchscreen My wife u00a0lost her contacts twice after which she gave up She bought herself another phone and now the iPhone which is full of scratches is only for Neona who is now old enough to understand that she shouldnrsquot touch mummyrsquos phone to play her gamesrdquo says the Matunga resident Now the couple has an iPhone iPod and an android device between the two and a separate iPhone for Neona Two yearold Khalid uses his mother Adiba Khanumrsquos Blackberry Curve as a chew toy PicNimesh Dave On the iPhone if your finger is pressed on an icon for more than three seconds it begins to tingle and the option to delete an app pops up ldquoI have lost many of my important notes and saved emails this wayrdquo says Shah whorsquos phone also fell short of memory after Neona learned how to use the camera ldquoI would be with a client and would need to take a few site photos but the phone memory would be full It got a bit tedious to keep a check on itrdquo he says Finally he decided to keep one phone aside just for Neona to play games onu00a0The 30 yearold believes he is not spoiling his daughter by giving her a separate phone ldquoShe is learning a lot The iPhone has u00a0so many educational applications and games including Alphabets Fun Farm Animals and Tidy the Room that I know it is helping her learn through technologyrdquo u00a0he feels Phones are not toys Thirtyfive yearold Sayed Aziz is a huge fan of gadgets and likes to indulge in expensive phones tablets and gadgets ldquoMy five yearold daughter Sara shares my passion for video games As soon as I come home she grabs my iPhone and then I donrsquot get to see it till she goes to bed And she has a favourite spot at the window where she plays One day I realised that the phone had slipped from her hands and fallen out of the window I still remember the horror of collecting the pieces from the parking lotrdquo he recalls grimly Four yearold Neona has her own iPhone to play educational games PicAtul Kamble Thankfully he had backed up his data and contacts just the week before ldquoIt would have been really painful to start from scratchrdquo says the Bycullaresident who has since enforced a strict rule at home His daughter is not allowed to play with his phones anymore ldquoI have bought her a PlayStation and made her understand that she is not old enough to play with my phonerdquo says the software engineer with a triumphant smile Nursery rhymes on a notebook While some parents are disallowing children from using highend gadgets others prefer buying their little ones their own personal phone or tablet to make life simpler In fact garment exporter Shabistan Shaikh says she was thrilled when five yearold Subhaan began using her laptop to listen to nursery rhymes last year ldquoHe would play his nursery rhymes in loop and even slept with the laptop by his bedsiderdquo smiles the 33 yearold u00a0But little did she realise that she would soon be losing the laptop to him He refused to let her use it at home ldquoI tried to dissuade Subhaan from using the laptop but he just wouldnrsquot budge He would cry and even refuse to eat if I stopped him from playing with it Finally I gave in and let him take my old Compaq Notebook for him Hersquos happy with it and doesnrsquot touch mine anymorerdquo says the Mira Road resident Thirtythree yearold Adnan Adebin has turned his two years and nine months old daughter Zaararsquos fascination for his smartphone into a bonding exercise Five yearold Subhaan plays on his personal notebook while his mother Shabistan Shaikh works on her laptop PicNimesh Dave ldquoWhen I bought a Samsung Galaxy phone three months ago Zaara was attracted to the shiny exterior She would always reach out to hold it and tap it with her fingers I realised that I could play educational games with her on the phone and began to allow her a few minutes in the day Now as soon as I come home from work she crawls into my lap and we play games for around 30 minutesrdquo says the Santacruz resident From rattle to iPads Does this practise spoil children After all the previous generation played with nothing more than tops and marbles and spent a lot more time in physical activity and turned out just fine some would feel Yusuf Matcheswala consulting psychiatrist Masina Hospital does not agree ldquoKids aged between four and 10 are hyperactive Let me explain with an example Recently I was on a flight and saw a six yearold child playing on the iPad I could see his hand and eye movement and I could make out that he was handling the tablet smartly We are in an era where children have a natural inclination towards technology There was a time when kids this age played with rattles today they are playing virtual games What is wrong with thatrdquo he asks He does caution however that children should not lose out on human interaction ldquoSpending time in nature and nurturing personal relationships with siblings and parents should not take a backseat to technologyrdquo he feels Similarly psychiatrist Harish Shetty who runs Nityanand Clinic in Andheri West gives a word of caution for parents ldquoWhen communication goes down the demand for gadgets increases Parents use gadgets in many ways mdash the television to feed the child and tablets and cell phones to make the child keep quiet mdash be it at a dinner party or at the doctorrsquos clinic In many ways children are spending family time with gadgets However when parents monitor the usage and encourage their children to play educational games it is finerdquo u00a0