It's Time To #CleanUpCashOut...

Every second day the menace of E-Waste makes its way to the headlines in national dailies. Yet, my cries in agony seem to fall on deaf ears. They say 'Old is Gold' and even though I am a golden ager, by all means, nobody seems to care enough to value me in brass or bronze, leave alone the precious yellow metal.

Gone are the days of yore wherein I was assembled in a top-notch factory adhering to all laid out safety standards, complete with best-in-class specifications, handled with care to be encased in a brand new sturdy packaging - those were the days! :)

Now, its an all new and sad ball game all-together wherein there are a plethora of brands each rolling out a new phone - dare you to say smart! It was my time when we were truly smart, me and my comrades - today's fancy pieces are all with similar specs, just twisted explanations with some technical jargon for spice to lure potential customers, every other day! Are they manufacturing phones or ice-cream - rolling out new flavors every other weekend - for Christ's sake!

As phones, correction - smartphones - we were prized possessions - replacing round-dial landlines and cordless phones - who were our forefathers. As for today's spoiled brats, there is not an ounce of reverence for in them for their senile counterparts like me.

I have a heavy sense of neglect draining through my circuitry at this moment. I feel as if the world will come crashing upon me to finally tear apart my components as I lie helpless with no one to pay heed to my plight. I am only able to recall the golden memories of my youth - how I was first loaded with a brand new OS by my manufacturer, then the journey to my owner who had sent word to me through one of the leading e-commerce websites in the country, and how I had spent a jolly seven years with my owner and her family. I still remember how her kids were first excited on seeing me - our first meeting was a dream come true for me.

I had the good fortune of being an indispensable part of my owner's life - making calls, listening to music, scheduling important meetings, being her BFF on work and leisure outstation trips - Oh My! - how many memorable moments had I captured for my beloved owner and her family! Most of them are her prized possessions - framed for eternity till date.

The kids used to enjoy playing games on me during their half-hour study breaks all the time. However, the same kids are today responsible for my tattered condition. Goofing around with their games, and occupying more than their individual designated break time lead to a tussle between the kids and I was angrily snatched from them by my owner. Such a dramatic scene it was, that I was sent flying to the ceiling, and hit the revolving blades of the fan. All for me to sport a large crack all across my display. It was all an accident, I agree. But, no one else apart from me had to bear the consequences. Thankfully, all my functionality was intact. In spite of that, I could see my seven-year-lifetime gradually coming to an end.

Just like one vice overshadows a hundred good qualities, that one aesthetic flaw sent all my first-class features down the drain. Gradually, my owner gave in to societal pressures of flaunting a phone that had an as-good-as-new screen and I was packed off in a cardboard box and dumped in one corner of the house with all other previous phones owned by the family to lend me a shoulder and share their sob stories of having undergone a similar experience, ending up with a couple of defects that rendered them useless.

Even though my owner used to miss me badly, owing to the fact that her newer phone did not sport as many features and was not able to provide her as much ease of use as I used to, the least she could do for me was to take me to a couple of repair shops to explore if I could be cured of my defect. My seven-year-long sturdiness was an asset once-upon-a-time but had become a liability now! Similar was the plight of most of my box-mates who had been loyal to my owner long enough for their spare parts like screens, keys, and accessories to vanish from the market.

I was back to the cardboard box for as long as it seemed until a good samaritan came visiting. Turns out, that my owner was shifting cities owing to her kids' higher education and my box mates and I had been put up one of the leading resale websites in the country. It was their time to #CleanUpCashOut.

After a week of us being put up, this gentleman made way to my owner's place for paying a fortune to take me with him. It was my moment of truth. This gentleman was willing to pay way beyond what the website said was my estimated resale value! I was surprised, joyous, and sad, all at the same time.

Turns out, I was a Limited Edition piece and that person was a gadget freak who loved to collect vintage smartphones. Just that, it never occurred to my owner that I was an exquisite creation. However, this person would not collect phones like me to be valued as antique memorabilia, but dismantle them, and sell off the components for a bigger fortune! This would be the biggest nightmare. It would mean that I would be strangled to death!

While my owner was happy that she had finally bid adieu to me with my custody being in safe hands, my journey was far from over. It was too late a realization as I had already left my owner's place with this devil of sorts. How I cursed those kids for having played past their break time enough to anger their mother in the first place. But no, that was not how my end was meant to be. For it was bound to happen that this person was robbed at gunpoint at the petrol pump wherein the thieves ran off with his car and all his belongings including me. I was never more thankful enough for the concept of robbery being known to the world than at that point in time.

The robbers planned to sell all that they had stolen to amass a fortune just in time for the festival of Diwali. I was relieved that at least I would reach my next stop in one piece. Little did I know that this next stop would be none other than filthy sewage which would lead me to the garbage dump, thanks to the robbers being chased and frightened by stray dogs just when those people were on their way to sell me for whatever less or more they could get in exchange.

Damn that sewage which accounts for the liquid damage that dampened three-fourths of my circuitry, and caused my keys to fall out too. Now, I have not only the cracked display but these additional defects also to blame for my tattered condition. And, it's not that I lay in any other garbage dump. It is a huge pile of E-Waste that I am a part of now. I believe my abode at this moment must be humongous enough to be seen from space, providing stiff competition to The Great Wall of China.

It has been two weeks that I have been lying in this filthy dump. There are all sorts of antique gadgets in our midst. Sir Graham Bell and Sir Babbage would be proud and heartbroken at the same time! Each day, a couple of cranes come, grasp some of us who are breathing our last, and crush us to bite the dust. While I have been fortunate enough to survive the ordeal since a week or two now, I have no clue on how I'll be able to sustain my instinct to survive. Until I perish, I might as well persist.

So, if you wouldn't want your gadgets to end up as E-Waste in as pitiable a condition as mine, you might as well pay a visit here and utilize the coupon code CLEANCASH to earn a bit more value than being offered elsewhere in exchange for your loyal but inefficient gadgets that have been biting the dust at home for quite some time now. Wouldn't you want to #CleanUpCashOut in an effective manner this festive season? :)