Big B: Smartphones are ‘the invention of the times’

Mumbai, April 11 Smartphones would have to be the invention of the times, feels Amitabh Bachchan.

“The ‘wheel’ has been dubbed as the greatest invention of all time.. in todays times I would say the ‘smart phone’..” the actor opined on Twitter.

In a blog entry, Big B shared his reasons. “The smart phone would have to be the invention of the times.. it is running everything in the World today.. whatever would we have done without it,” he wrote.

Travelling down memory lane Big B shared memories of landline phones and, how these were the primary means to to communicate with before cellphones came along.

“The finger dialling within rounded hole numbers was the luxury of the times.. that and the Frig.. it was ‘the’ possession if you had that line land phone in the house.. difficult to afford for us at the time, and a privilege we never enjoyed for years..” he reminisced.

“When you never had it, it was manual communication.. a bicycle ride to tell or inform or get from the market.. and in an emergency a brisk run to the neighbours — at times pretty distant, for, not all had the facility,” he added.

The veteran actor also shared how their family used to wait for letters from his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan when he was pursuing his PhD in Cambridge and the experience when they heard his voice after two years over phone.

“When Babuji was in Cambridge for his PhD the phone was unheard of.. it was the letters that commanded information and connect.. on the one occasion I remember when we were able to hear his voice after a gap of 2 years, he wrote a letter to say which day and time he would be able to afford a call from England.. letters took almost 7 to 10 days , if you were lucky, to get to their addressed destination.. and the call was to a friends phone, that lived a good half hour bicycle ride away .. the anticipation of the wait.. the excitement of a phone call coming through.. the moment of its connect.. the nervous quivers.. the emotion.. and within a few minutes.. over,” he wrote.

Drawing a comparison between landlines and smartphone, he wrote: “In the times of yesterday, when the phone rang the entire household would run from different parts of the house to pick up that receiver.. such was the importance and excitement of its ownership.”

He added: “Now you control what comes in.. whether it should come in.. who will be permitted to come in.. and a zillion other factors that go along in the acquisition of the marvel.

However, times change and with the changing times, the new generation often fails to comprehend many things belonging to the bygone era, he contended. “This generation will never understand those times.. just as our generation was never able to understand the times before us,” he commented.