I got my first mobile phone in late 2003. I had resisted it for a good amount of time for no reason I can clearly explain - until finally my workmates begged me to buy one otherwise they would. Being a nice, middle-class girl, I succumbed to this threat. I mean, aisa bhi kya hai, I can buy my own phone, yaar!

Of course, after that I discovered all the various illicit pleasures of SMS — a form constantly on the verge of flirtatiousness — the supposed convenience of constant internet access. But, I also found myself frequently waiting for others and an unsettled day with people fixing time and place only at the last minute.