Sounds like the title of a new Tarantino film!! . . . But this has been the headline in all the leading publications and media channels across Pakistan.
The country has been in a near state of panic requiring an official notification to the media from all 6 (that’s right six . . . we just can’t get enough of telecom in Pakistan) cellular phone operators and the government regulator.
With cellular customer numbers crossing 50 million in a country whose population is 160 million (and not too educated) we have seen some leaps and bounds happening in thisconduit that delivers all human emotions on a daily basis. (an example - it now costs 2 cents a minute to call the US from Pakistan) These 50 or so million customers were in a frenzy since the 11th when a news item appeared in a leading English daily highlighting the rumor of a possible mobile phone virus that can apparently knock the listener out, cause bleeding from the ears and nose and eventually death!
Well its hard to describe but the rumor has to be one of the most successful hoaxes I have ever witnessed . . . this story had the entire country (and I am not kidding here) calling and texting each other frantically and educating them of this ‘oh so deadly virus’ which shows up on your phone as a call from an unknown number followed by the voice of a woman who asks the listener to hear a new song and then the listener faints!
How thick can one be??
I was even more amazed when literate, and I mean educated-in-colleges-abroad, have-seen-the-world, literate friends were passing the message (yea yea in good-faith or just-in-case-this-may-be-possible!!) and discussing the possibilities of the causes and the symptoms of such a 'deadly virus'.
The most original adaptation on the rumor was stated somewhere in Gujranwala (that’s a village in Pakistan). 'A cell phone company had placed a tower (the big ugly thing that sends and receives all sorts of technical frequencies which we commonly know as ‘coverage signals’) in a graveyard. This placement of the tower in the graveyard disturbed the spirits of the area and these spirits were now 'traveling' through the airwaves and taking revenge from the innocent customer in order to pressure the company and have the tower removed. Does this story even have the slightest hint of reason? Full marks to imagination and I wont be too surprised if Stephen King makes a book/movie about the “cellular phone killer spirit” or we see the title "the nightmare on cell ring". (Maybe Gujranwala recently saw ‘The Ring’???)
Well let’s just say that my phone has not stopped ringing with inquiries from nearly every news channel (there are more than 12 in Islamabad now) and over 30 newspaper reporters filing the scoop on this rumor over the last 4 days.
This eventful rumor definitely deserves its rightful place in Guinness as the most successful and rapidly spreading ‘virus’ (pun intended) in one country.
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