THE coming of cellular phones has made life very easy for people around the world.
Years back, it was very difficult to communicate with people in far-flung areas.
If you were in Lusaka, Ndola , Kitwe or any other city or town, and you wanted to communicate with your relatives who were in Chinsali, Petauke, Chavuma or any other rural area, you had to write a letter which would take not less than a week or month to reach the people you wanted to communicate with.
But life has been made easy   with the coming of gadgets like cellular phones and  computers  because just at pressing  the  buttons, you could reach  whoever  you  want  to  within seconds as  long  as they  also had  cell-phones  or  had access to  computers.
Previously, you   could go to the post  office or to relatives  or  friends who  had  phones  to  phone  people who  were  not  near  you.
Some times  you  could be lucky if  the  people  you  wanted  to speak  with  were available.
With the  coming  of  computers, you could  email  anyone  you  wanted  to  communicate with and  they  could  email  you  back within  minutes.
Although  the  coming of  cell-phones  and  computers  has  brought  the  whole  world  closer to  all of us, it  has  also brought  problems, especially in homes  where  husbands  and  wives  have   differed  because  of  cell-phones.
Cell phones have made some people to be liars and dishonest. For instance, there have been times when people, including you and me, have unnecessarily told lies to our wives, husbands, relatives or friends.
You may have been phoned by your wife or husband or friend but since you did not want to do what they wanted you for, you told them that you were somewhere very far and you could only do what they were asking you once you got back from wherever you were when in the real sense, you were just within reach.
You may be wondering why the eavesdropper is discussing cell phones this time around.
Well, let me share with you the two incidences that happened recently concerning cell phones just last week.
The first incidence happened when I was in a mini bus from Chifubu Township to Masala Township in Ndola.
What happened was that, I was seated in the front seat with another man whose phone beeped. The man checked the phone to see who was paging him only to find that it was his wife.
After a few minutes, the phone beeped again and the man mumbled:”
Why is my wife constantly paging me. She can’t just call when air time on cell Z is almost free?” the man said to himself, but audibly enough for me and the driver to hear.
Just as he finished complaining, the phone rung, this time, it was not paging.
“Hallo bana Bwalya,” the man answered the phone.
“I am at work. I will call you when I knock off,” he said again, apparently responding to what his caller said.
We had reached Kafubu Stream at this time. The man had told the caller that he was still at work and he would call back after knocking off. Was this man really at work?
Had he been a mini bus conductor or driver, I wouldn’t have cared, but the man was not a conductor because the conductor was here and was busy collecting money from commuters.
He was not even the driver because the driver was here driving.
About one minute later, the man’s cell phone rung again and the man checked to see who the caller was and before answering, he said :” Ni ba madam again”.(It is my wife again).
“Hallo Bana Bwalya.”
“Yes. Where else do you think I am if I am not at work?” the man said again.
Then the man craned his neck to look at the back seats of the mini bus apparently to see someone.
It turned out that when the man jumped on the mini bus at Kansenshi, his wife had seen him because she was seated at the back seat of the same mini bus.
People in the mini bus laughed when the woman shouted that he was a liar because she was in the same mini bus he was riding and yet he was telling her that he was still at work.
When we reached at Masala bus station and disembarked from the mini bus, the woman confronted the man:”Ninshi mwabela no bufi. Ekunchito kuno?”(Why do you tell lies.Is this at work?
For fear of being embarrassed, the man kept quite.
The woman who now looked furious asked the man where he was going because he was not staying in Masala but Chifubu.
The man was completely short of words and only regretted and shook his head.
Four days after this incident, I was in Kabushi where I had gone to see a mechanic friend of mine.
It was around 14.00 hours when we heard noise from the neighborhood and people shouting that it was too much.
“Each time he gets home drunk he beats his wife. We have to deal with him today,” it was two young men of about 20 years old saying this.
The young men  were bitter because their niece and nephews had gone to report to them that their father had badly beaten their mother and it was for this reason that they  had come to sort our their  brother in law whom they accused to be a violent man who beat their sister each time he had taken some beers.
“No, I didn’t beat her. Ask her, I didn’t beat her,” the man was protesting.
But the young men had come prepared to sort their brother in law as they had taken off their shirts and were shadow boxing as the man was running around to avoid being beaten.
Then a woman’s voice shrieked: “Ninshi  ya lubana? Tabangumine,” (what is the problem? He did not beat me. The young men stopped their shadow boxing and looked at their sister who looked quite frightened at the event.
One of the men said loudly that it was her children (sister’s children) who had gone to their home in Masala Township to report that she was badly beaten.
It was at this point that the woman started explaining what had happened.
Her daughter’s phone had a problem and since she did not have money to buy another phone immediately, she asked her mother whether she could use her phone because she was expecting a call from her friend.
Since her mother had a double sim card phone, but was only using one sim, she allowed her to use the other sim.
The girl put her sim card in her mother’s phone and was waiting for the call.
The call did not come at the expected time , around 19:00 hours.
Meanwhile, the girl’s mother went into the bathroom to have a bath while the girl briefly left the house to see a friend   next door.
The girl’s father had just reached home from his drinking binge when the phone started ringing. The phone went unanswered two times).
When the phone started ringing for the third time, the man decided to answer it since his wife, the owner of the phone, was bathing.
“She was in the bathroom when the phone was ringing. It rang for the third time and when I picked it to tell whoever was calling that the owner of the phone was bathing, a rude and harsh man’s voice told me to give the phone to the owner.
“I just said hallo when the voice said ‘pela umwine wa phone’. It was a man’s voice and this was my wife’s phone,” explained the man.
He said he was still holding the phone when his wife got out of the bath room when he asked who the man on the other end of the line was. The man insisted that he should give the phone to the owner.
“Niwebo nani. Iyi ni phone yabakashi bandi,” (who are you? This is my wife’s phone),the man said he asked the man on the other end of the line.
“Iwe, pelafye umwine wa phone,” the man insisted. “I was annoyed and threw the phone on the chair. This is when my wife and the children ran away, explained the man.
He said that he was furious because the other man sounded pompous and rude and he thought he  could have been his wife’s boy friend.
It was then that he threw the phone on the chair and blamed his wife of having a boy friend.
The wife told him that the call was for their daughter who had put in her sim card in the phone, but the man was too annoyed that he started smashing things in the house making her and the children scared and run away.
The man locked the doors and went to sleep while his wife and two of the children sought refuge at the neighbor’s residence and the two other children ran to their uncle’s house in Masala Township where they told them that their mother had been beaten.
“I told my husband that our daughter had put her sim card in my phone and whoever called was calling on the girl’s sim. My husband was annoyed because the man who called was impolite and he thought he was calling me,” the woman explained to her brothers.
“But your son and daughter came home last night and said ba mulamu balimyuma(brother in law  beat you),” said one of the young men.
After the confusion, the two young men, their sister and brother in law entered the house, possibly to resolve the problem amicably.
That is what cell phones could sometimes do  –  Making life difficult instead of making it easy. Potipher2014@gmail.com. 0955929796.