Mobiles doubling up as cameras, as a payment device, as a means to access email ...but mobiles as errr...food What next The credit for that, however, must go to the vice-president (marketing) of an MNC pharma company in Mumbai. While holidaying at a beach resort in Kovalam, the inebriated Veep dropped his cellphone into the waves. Only to have an enterprising waiter retrieve it. The cellphone was sea-tossed and worse, his precious international roaming SIM card was also wet, so he kept it on the table to dry. An hour and a plate of cocktail eats later, he decided to reload the phone. Only to find the SIM missing. The card had, he gradually realised, gone in a quick munch, with a mouthful of fried cashews! Thats as far as eavesdropper knows ... as for what happened the morning after... no prizes for guessing!

More on mobiles

Mobile companies are forever looking for marketing gimmicks. The trick is to turn every opportunity to your advantage. So how do companies welcome subscribers in places where connectivity is poor By telling them, Please bear with us, connectivity is not too good here so you may have problems Not on your life! Take Airtel. Knowing how subscribers from Delhi and Mumbai struggle with congested networks, it greets subscribers who land in Bhubaneswar with a clever Welcome to a congestion-free Airtel Orissa network! First the good news, the pain can come later, is the motto!

Taste after health

Here is a physician who refuses to heal himself. Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss recently inaugurated Arogya 2005, a health-related fair in Hyderabad, to promote the Indian systems of medicineayurveda, siddha, unani, homeopathy, etc. Himself a qualified medical doctorallopathic, not homeopathiche politely refused concoctions, such as ginger tea and other healthy herbal juices offered by enthusiastic stallwallahs. Back in his retiring lounge, he enquired of his secretary, Where can we get some nice, strong filter kapi The doctor clearly preferred caffeine decoction made the Madras way to healthy herbal concoctions.