I was sprinting for a late departure at Victoria railway station on the eve of my birthday, having spent an enjoyable evening at my book group (chewing-over Tim Moore's travelogue-cum-state-of-the-nation jaunt, "You Are Awful (But I LikeYou!")), & in a Covent Garden pub watching Manchester City come a-cropper against Chelsea, supping-up my splendid pints of Oyster stout, when my Nokia leapt parabolically from my pocket & cascaded down onto the ground on Platform 18, with a concantenation of ominous sounds! Not, not a ring-tone...more a 'I'm nokia-ed out!' Catastrophe? No! A minor inconvenience,yes. The three sections when re-assembled were a poor excuse for a piece of technology! Not a whimper from its innards, nor a whisper from its shiny exterior.
The following morning, my birthday, in Croydon's shopping magnet that is the Whitgift Centre,Virgin Mobile (my chosen purveyor) staff were not very interested in me or my apparently-defunct phone when I said I had dropped it...'not covered under the guarantee or insurance...you'll need to buy a new phone'...my disappointment was palpable enough for the young female assistant to mention, by way of consolation, the existence of an Asian guy with a tiny stall around the corner selling mobile-phone accessories etc....'He might be able to repair it'.).This cheerful Indian chap-ee merely touched the blasted thing for e few moments, and lo & behold, it came to chirping life again
"What did you do to it!?", I asked, incredulously, and with immense relief.
"I turned it on with this button here!".
"But I've been trying exactly that since last night!", I replied.
"Well...it's a Nokia...very strongly-made..."
"No! Come on!...what did you do to it?!...you must have a magic touch or something?!".
The modest 'fakir' shrugged, smiled and said: "No!...I just turned it on!".
A mystery or what? The phone,with a few scratches to its screen, is working perfectly well now.
And I won't have to shell-out for a new mobile. Happy Birthday to Me!
The moral of this story? There are some clever 'fakirs' out there!
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