A Note for the Future

An incredible experience recorded on the incredible Galaxy NOTE 2

What would anyone want a smartphone for? Will it be simply to talk to friends and relatives? Obviously no. There is a lot one can do with smartphones. If this be the case, what would a person do best with the smartest of smartphones today? Obviously, do a lot more than merely talk.

So now you are probably wondering that this article is going to be like any of those million other articles that go on and on praising some technical features of a smartphone. Well, no… because I know you can easily read any of those other regular boring articles on the features of a smartphone and use it optimally. I am going to take you all the way to Coimbatore and tell you an interesting way in which I used my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 when I met the legendary Indian Formula One racer Narain Karthikeyan. I also intend to introduce you to the euphoria of a few really talented novelists of India as they came face to face with this wonderful trick that I had stumbled upon while in Coimbatore.

It was the morning of the 21^st of December when I took a Spicejet flight from Delhi to Coimbatore to drive with Narain. This was because I had won this privilege in a Facebook contest sponsored by the Jaago Re team from Tata Tea.

The racing track was around thirty kilometres outside the city and as I entered the gates and saw Narain’s team setting up the sports car for the drive, the rush of adrenalin began. The atmosphere became more electric as the great driver drove in. Narain just walked up to me and smiled. I shook hands with him and blurted, ‘You have a friendly smile…’

He explained to me some of the precautions I must keep in mind while the drive was on… and then he motioned to me to get ready for the experience I was in Coimbatore for. He eased himself inside that ground hugging racing machine which was a twin-seater and I was asked to heave myself in. The feelings throughout the five rounds we took of that 2.4 km circuit were indescribable. The vroom-vroom, the queasy feeling in the tummy, and the heart-in-the-mouth moments are more than alive even now as I am writing these words.

After the drive and after I had managed to get my frame back to normal, Narain walked up to me and asked, ‘How was it?’

‘Unforgettable,’ I answered, and continued, ‘I wish I could write my blog posts at that speed. Just imagine… writing at 200 kms/hr.’ He smiled and said, ‘Driving should be an enjoyable experience. Race tracks and city roads need drivers to be aware of the rules and need to drive safely… always.’ I couldn’t agree more. It was at this point that one other contest winner took out a few large prints of Narain and requested him to sign them for him.

‘Autograph!’ my mind whispered, ‘even you must take his autograph!’ I put my hands inside my jeans pocket to take out my scratch pad when I felt the reassuring gorilla glass of the Galaxy Note 2 in there… and this was when this brilliant idea struck me. I could get myself be photographed with this racing legend and then use the S-memo and the S-pen to get a unique autographed picture! I decided to test the idea then and there.

As a first step, I asked the Jaago Re photographer to click Narain and me with my smartphone… then I quickly opened the S-memo, inserted this picture in it and turned to Narain, ‘Can you please sign on this pic here?’

He looked at the Note2 in my hands and asked, ‘Here?’ I could sense that even he was finding it rather incredible that he was about to give a digital autograph on a picture that was clicked just a few seconds back! He said, ‘This is incredible!’ But even as he said these words, he had taken the S-pen that I offered and signed across the picture! I then saved this memo file and then imported it as a jpg which I opened and showed him.

He looked at the jpg of our picture with his signature and said, ‘This is an innovative use of technology.’ I replied, ‘For me this is a piece of incredible art!’

The legendary Narain Karthikeyan signs on the incredible Galaxy Note 2

I realised then that technology, however smart, gets smarter when smart ideas propel it further. The Samsung galaxy Note 2 was a smart piece of incredible technology… but the way it had been used made it the smartest gizmo to my mind. I whispered to myself, ‘You are incredible, my Galaxy Note 2… just as incredible as the legend here that I am talking to.’

I tried this again just a day later during the BTB Literary awards function where I was being given the ‘Best Reviewer of 2012’ award along with a few Indian novelists being honoured for their writings. So now I have with me my memories with these wonderful wordsmiths too – signed by the authors! It was unforgettable to see the smiles on their faces as they hesitatingly took the S-pen and signed, as if they half expected to find me laughing at the right moment and say, ‘No, it cannot be done like this.’ And then when they were actually able to sign and also see their signatures being saved and a jpg shown to them, they unhesitatingly said, ‘This is so fantastic.’

What do I remember most from these two meetings with the greats? Is it the Galaxy Note 2? No, this great smartphone is always there with me. Well then, is it the signatures of the greats that you now have? No.

I remember the incredulous look on the faces of all of these wonderful celebrities that seemed to silently say, ‘This is one incredible feature in a smartphone!’ A couple of the novelists did admit to me that they were highly impressed with this feature and that they would be seriously considering going for this smartphone and using it as I did. No wonder then that I am a rather pleased man these days.

If you too wish to be a part of the magnificent creative endeavour that will be a Guinness World Record, click here and submit your own ‘incredible art piece’… Yes, Samsung Galaxy Note II helps you understand the real meaning of ‘incredible’!