Brrrnnggg!!!

Earlier today i was part of this conversation (actually i was more of a silent spectator to some ridiculously wierd talk the women around me seem to thrive on) which caught my attention and made me think about it long after my brain had died and buried itself under all the saree and saas talks. 

Alarm clocks. And no, the conversation wasn't anything remotely intelligent (that would be too much to ask really), and nor did it go beyond asking everyone in the room if anyone had an alarm clock that could be lent for a prank being planned. After everyone had shaken their heads in the negative, i continued thinking about it in my corner (yes, i was that bored, and yes, i was trying to hide to avoid the 'oh you sing a song next' routine). 

Where are all the alarm clocks? I know my grandfather always carried one with him whenever he travelled (but the tiny clock is now gathering dust somewhere in a dark cupboard) and we have a clock that the Fellow has had with him since his NDA days (which he keeps as a reminder of those days when the clock was more sadistic than a memory and helped him get out of bed at inhumane times of the morning), and my aunt still keeps the annoying rooster alarm clock that starts cuckroo-cooing whenever she wants to jolt us awake. But apart from these three, i dont remember seeing any alarm clocks in the last, what, ten years at least? 

Actually the alarm clocks started dissapearing around the same time cellphones got popular. I know my Snoopy alarm clock (equally annoying as the rooster one) was relegated to the back of the shelf when i got my new shiny cell phone and i could set a really cool song as my alarm tone.

With more and more cell phones around, people have forgotten those ever handy and very usefuel (albeit annoying) alarm clocks that could be found in every house. I miss those alarm clocks and the quaintness of the fancier ones - the Snoopy, the rooster, the hippo and even odd joker or two. I miss setting the clock every night and rotating the tiny (really tiny) circular knobs on the back to move the small red hand. I miss hitting the clock with my hand every morning (and not worrying that it will fall and break like i do with my phone now). 

I miss the simplicity of alarm clocks and i'm afraid they're on the fast track to extinction.