Once Bitten, Twice Smitten

Yes. We often repeat mistakes in life. That's not just that our memory is short, our logic fails sometimes and we may overlook things. Overconfidence also adds to such stupidity.

I bought my Nokia C3 phone in October 2010, when I was sponsored three days trip to Goa for Tata Nano car ad photo shoot. That phone has 2G internet, and I activated the internet by sending message to a particular number, as instructed by a local mobile store guy. Those days I was also a team member of a Mangalorean web portal reporting news and writing articles. So browsing through that website was very essential for me.

My phone was topped up with Rs. 1000/- prepaid recharge for talk time. As soon as I reached goa, I got the welcome message and the roaming started. I used my phone for making and receiving calls, sms and also internet browsing.

Within a day I found that the balance is drastically coming down, and on the second day, my balance sank below the Rs.100/- mark! I called up my friend Ajay Baliga in Mangalore over phone and requested him to power recharge my phone with an extra Rs. 1000/- currency and he obliged.

After my Goa trip was complete, I checked that I had used almost Rs. 1650/- on phone calls, internet browsing and other activities. Then when I discussed this with another friend Konchady Prakash Shenoy, he said Airtel has data plan of Rs.98/- for one month which you can use for 1 GB data. I was shocked to know that I wasted so much currency when I could have done the same thing within an investment of Rs. 100/- for a month!

So I went for that data plan and lived happily for 3 years.

Then I was tempted to buy a 3G smartphone. I went for Samsung S7562 with dual SIM and someone said, it is better to go for a 3G SIM since the phone is 3G, and my Airtel SIm was 2G. I went for the second SIM by BSNL and activated their data plan which was cheaper than Airtel. I also bought a 3G USB dongle so that I can use the same SIM for browsing internet on my PC in case the landline had issues. Eventually I stopped charging the SIM with data plan, as I have WiFi at home which is sufficient for my usage.

So far so good.

Last week, I had problem with connectivity when my BSNL land phone was dead and broadband was intermittently getting disconnected. So I started using the dongle with BSNL SIM loaded in it as and when needed. Thus for 2 days I was happy. On the third day, I was outside in a hotel in the evening, and was idle for a long gap of time waiting for someone. Thought of browsing the net and switched on mobile data. Happily browsed youtube, watched song videos, browsed through my blog, facebook, whatsapp, and what not!

My friend arrived, we had snacks and coffee, I showed him Garam Tawa android app and boasted about what all I am into, and impressed him. He was fascinated, and asked me which data plan I am using. I proudly said BSNL 155/- for 22 days, 1GB data free!

Then I switched mobile data off, and suddenly the message appeared from Airtel,

"You have used 1670 MB data, cost is Rs.167/-, and your current balance is Rs.44.15".

Then I realised that my BSNL SIM was left at home in the USB dongle!