For someone who is acutely technologically challenged, it's perhaps not surprising that I have taken to making ample use of the silent button on my phone off late only. I love the silent option. As I have discovered the joys offered by this facility, I have taken to shutting off people for the sheer joy of doing so, much to the consternation of family and friends.

Someone said the other day that technology has brought distant communication close and close communication distant. It reminded me of Kakoli Chatterjee from A Suitable Boy (of the What is Krishnan, in the end. Just a mushroom, just a friend fame) who was 'attached to her phone with an umbillical cord' and would stop talking to a first level friend in person to talk to a second level friend on the telephone.