witch on your television and count the number of ads that feature mobile phones in some way or the other. Count all the blink-and-you-miss appearances, the meaty cameos, the lead roles and even the comic characterisations. Quite a handful, isn�t it?

And we are not talking about the commercials of mobile handsets or service providers here. Peeping out from denim pockets, from shopping bags, flaunted in the midst of a conversation or casually resting on an executive desktop, mobile phones are everywhere and in all possible avatars. An indication perhaps of how important the little device has become in a country where the number of mobile phones is poised to surpass that of fixed lines (currently estimated at 4.3 crore) by November end. (According to provisional forecasts made by Gartner, cellular connections in India will reach 5.6 crore by the end of 2004, up 96 per cent from 2003). ... more