Married to the mob(ile)

Rejoice, Indian couples! You have nothing to lose but your mobile phone habits. If one goes by the incredibly watertight statistics of the cases registered with the Crime Against Women Cell of the Delhi Police, traditional marital problems such as dowry violence, drunken husbands and those sort of things are fast disappearing. Instead, the looming issue of worry is excessive mobile phone use. According to the figures, out of the 9,800 complaints received by the Delhi Police over the last year, some 8,000 — or about 80 per cent — arose from that dreaded cellphone habit.

Instead of looking at this fluffy dark cloud above most of Delhi’s couples, let’s look at the bright side. The complaints to the Crime Against Women Cell may come only from wives — who have to face the rage of their bitter halves when the latter suspect that they are talking to a paramour instead of ordering items from the corner shop. But that hardly means that the hubbies are not facing the brunt of suspicious wives each time they sms comments in between overs in a cricket match to their strictly male friends. And it’s not only about surreptitious romances. Office life creeping and crawling into ‘home sweet home’ via mobile telephony is making many a spouse lose their hair, if not their temper.

So what is to be done? We suggest nothing. If marriages fall apart because of telecommunication, the world that is Indian domestic life sure seems better. As for how much we should trust the fact that 80 per cent of marital discords have the phone at its epicentre, maybe we should check with that fount of all dependable knowledge: the HRD Ministry.