The Story of an ignored Smart Watch

I use technology, but I don’t get technology. I just know rose gold and slim device and little bit of megapixels, but you talk dual core with me and I’ll avoid you for the rest of my life. It is like cricket: I watch it just to see Virat Kohli sending out flying kisses to Anushka when he hits a century.

You see, I always want to be in the game, always in the know, but I am a regular girl with very girly characteristics and this is the story of my fitness band:

Four years back there was a contest on Twitter. I participated in it with all my creativity. It was related with technology and how, being a wife, I hated it when my husband paid more attention to it. It was a very emotional subject for me and I went all out.

My wit wanted the mobile phone to turn red when my husband looked at the screen for more than 15 minutes. Genius idea was stolen by the applications world and they now have app locks. I have one for my Instagram wherein if I look at Taimur’s pictures for more than 15 minutes a day, it locks it.

If you are judging me right now remember that there are three fingers pointing right back at you.

Anyway, coming back to that contest, my tweet won me a fitness watch. Yes, four years back, when the world had not even started sauntering 10,000 steps every day.

My first instinct was to sell it. With the money, I could buy a dress one size smaller, look at it every day and then become fit. This dress would have more power than any gadget showing me how much exercise I did during the day.

Laziness took over -  the watch was in my closet for a year or so, clothes were bought and discarded, and my size increased as usual.

On a certain Diwali cleaning, I found the watch in a corner and thought I will gift it to my brother since newer models had come and no one would buy this old dude now.

Laziness is in the genes - my brother never got around wearing it. Also, free things seem to give him diarrhea, my nani use to wisely state in a very proud tone.

Come 2017, some 2.5 years after I had won the watch, my mom did her Holi cleaning and found the unlucky band hidden in a corner. She asked me if this was mine. I rolled my eyes and replied affirmatively. She dumped it in my bag and so I had to bring it back.

Imagine my euphoria when I discovered that the charger had been lost in this process. Now why will I invest in a thing from Baba Adam ka Zamana. If I did want to wear a watch, I will get a new, swanky one. The prudent husband got into my brain, pulled out all my devious plans, went online and bought me a charger.

This watch now looked too huge as compared to all the sleek ones around. Imagine using the Sony Ericsson phone of the 90’s in this era. I made up some silly excuses and forgot about the watch yet again.

Then, on the eve of November 28, I was at the airport waiting for my friend from 8 years back. We had not met during this time but had kept in touch due to awesome technology. She had grown from a newly married girl to a mother of two and I was excited to meet her.

She walked out gracefully with her husband and two babies and did not look a minute older than how she looked 8 years back. I kept complimenting her on her fitness and told her how I was totally inspired.

Her only reply – Mehnat karte hain (We word hard).

I wanted to find chullu bhar paani and drown in my sorrow. Here I was - loving my life, living each moment, enjoying my child-free existence and completely ignoring my health. While she was doing it all, and how!

My girly jealousy kicked in. I wanted to fit in that dress I had worn with her on a particular New Year’s Eve some 8 years back. Ignoring all my egoistic tendencies, I asked her for tips.

She gave many but the two that stuck around were that she logged her calories and used a fitness tracker so that she at least does her steps every day.

I went into my locker, took out the grandpa watch and its charger. I handed over my phone to the husband so that he does the Bluetooth stuff and set the watch for me. He was laughing on the inside and doubting my commitment to it.

I told him I will wear it for a month and if I am successful in doing so I will get a nice golden one from #GetFitWithFlipkart.

This was me on the first day of wearing it. After a month, I am happy to report that I am on my way to ordering a Smart Wearable from Flipkart.

As you can see from the messages exchanged, I did lose a kilo. I am more active than I was in the whole of 2018. I am now looking at Nits, Outboard Storage, Battery Life and a lot of other technical terms.

But mostly I am looking at that Fitbit pendant, Luxury fitness watch in Rose Gold and all the girly things that only a FIT girl can buy…

I am also looking at some crazy #SmartHomeSolutions so that I can Ok Google, play dance numbers on YouTube without having to find the remote and only concentrate on shaking a leg or two to burn some calories. 

But mostly I want a Google home and Smart lights to go with it because increasing step count by switching off the lights doesn't go too well with my lazy personality. 

After all, it is all about the balancing it all, right?