To a common man who has yet to get a telephone connection at his home or to a busy businessman whose business entirely depends on the services of his mobile phone, the question which is put in the title of the topic may be absurd. But nowadays, in our society, the ways some people specially the younger generations use their mobile phones just for the sake of fashion have invited such questions among ourselves.

Let me begin this topic with an interesting episode and some comments which have been put forward by some users of the mobile phone.

On an evening of the last month, while I was on my way back home, a Maruti car had calmly overtaken my scooter. But all of a sudden the car while negotiating a turn due to a crack or pothole in the middle of the road lost control and smashed to a nearby electric post. As the car was driven at a modest speed, no serious damage and injury had been done to the car and its occupants numbering four with two girls, all of them in their late teens or early twenties including the driver.

I approached them and offered them some help. I asked the driver about the cause of the accident as there was hardly any vehicle on the road at that point of time. The young lad whom I had the impression that he hadn't even had the valid driving licence in his name answered with a coy smile that the incident was due to mishandling of the steering of the car when one of his hands was engaged in using the mobile phone.

Mobile Telephone System or Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM), in short, mobile phone system was first introduced in India in 1995. This system, an addition to the already existed WLL system, CDMA, Cordless services, etc. had changed the way people keep in touch among themselves and with the outside world and became a herald in information technology.

In Manipur too, the facility of mobile phones was made available from the middle of the 2003 on priority basis. First it all started in Imphal, then it spread to the greater Im-phal areas and now trickling down to other parts of the State fast with the facilities provided by the BSNL stations located at different locations.

The news reporter on duty, with a mobile phone is their belts or pockets, with its coloured lace round their necks, on a motorbike with the logo of ''Press' on it hurrying to collect news from different parts of the State is an attractive sight to watch which has caused much envy to their fellow youngsters. Though it is a necessity for the reporter on duty, it has tempted many to imitate them and that necessity turns into a fashion for other young lads and lasses.

The coming of the motor bike era and recent introduction of mobile in our State has helped not only in communication but also helped in adding a new colour in the fashion trends of the younger generations a lot.

Young boys riding the bikes with one hand on the handle and the other with the cell phone in the ear becomes a common sight (why not? The films and the albums have encouraged this new type of fashion). Take for instance, a student of a reputed college (name concealed) who never parts with his bike and mobile told me, 'You can say these two are my most precious possessions on earth. I have a mobile phone now and this has helped me to contact people easier than before, these two are my proud possession'. I only nodded in smile but at the same time feel confused as well as pity for the future of the boy.

Another young lad whom I met in the luxurious restaurant amidst his girl friend had given his loud and firm opinion, 'Fashion keeps changing and it is bound to be reflected in what we wear, what we possess and now mobile phone is also an added luxury, so why should we discard it?'

In another episode, a friend of mine told me that he had faxed a message to the Principal of a Nursing College at Andhra Pradesh where his daughter was doing her BSc Nursing course. He had requested the principal to hand over the mobile phone which the principal seized from the girl because using mobile phone was not allowed in the school campus.

He further sought the principal's permission to allow his daughter to carry a mobile phone. That is the only way they can keep in touch because using a mobile phone is easier for his daughter to communicate with her parents in Imphal than to go to a telephone booth or a PCO for STD call during night and during emergency hours.

The case of my friend's daughter is that of necessity and not of fashion.

Whether mobile phone is an ornament of fashion or it is a part of our necessity or a part of our lives in the modern society, the debate must go on.

But a reality that is surfaced in the recent news is that mobile phone are handy for illegal calls, for ransoms and for extortion threats. At the same time it is also easy to detect the number and location of the caller. It is of much concern for the licence users because they are apt under the threat of using their mobile phones by miscreants and there may be times or days when mobile phone subscribers are found frequently in the dock.

To sum up let these technical gadgets be used properly with that necessity or purpose for which it is invented.

Technical innovations, no matter how gee-whiz are not necessarily all beneficial in the long run especially when the potential for misuse is so vast.