You will get a good news Today



Five years ago, I saw an billboard which has a counter on it telling how many users have subscribed so far to that particular mobile operator. That particular mobile operator supposedly had the largest number of subscribers as they claim. The counter was showing the count around 10 million. It was till then that there were 4 mobile operators working in the country. Now there are 5. As per PTA, roughly there are around 98 million mobile users currently in the country whose total population is around 180 million. Surprisingly a country whose average income per capita is less then $3, has got half of its population a mobile connection which obviously requires a mobile set whose cost is at the least 2000 Rupee. But that is none of my concern today.



Our country was hit with the worst catastrophe ever last month. As per the media, almost half of the population of the country is affected by the flood. More than a couple of thousands have lost their lives. Many have lost there homes/businesses.

Ramadan started a few days ago. It is asked in our religion to give Zakat in this month. People usually have a special inclination towards religion and religious activities. Its been quite some days since Ramadan has started and there was not even a single day when I did not receive at least 3 "sacred" message out of which at least two were sent from one of my contacts saved in my phone-book, and 1 from a very random number. These "sacred" messages are usually Islamic messages telling me, how many 'Sajdas' I have missed so far. How many good deeds can I earn in a day by just reading out a single "Aayat" in that very message. How many blessings will I get if I pass on that message to at least 10 people in my phone-book. And what a wonderful news I am going to get the day if I will forward that message to an X amount of people.

Due to my non secular writings previously, most of you will assume I am going to ask you NOT to send me those messages. But I am not going to do that today, although you can still reconsider this article while sending me a pious message next time.

However what I am going to do is a little maths.

Considering the survey which tells me that there are 98 million mobile users in our country. I know its a very far fetched figure, and is probably only in the books of our 5 major mobile operators. Lets just assume that the figure is very exaggerated and may be, there are only 25% of the said figure who are actually using the SIMs on a regular basis.

So the number of users would be (98 million x 0.25) = 23 million (approximately)

Now I have received on average 3 messages a day.

Lets just say 10% of the 23 million receive 3 messages a day.

20% gets 2 messages a day.

30% gets ½ a message. (That means they get 1 message in two days).

And the rest 40% does not get any message the whole Ramadan.

So the 10% of 23 million mobile users who gets 3 messages a day, would be:

23000000 x 0.10 = 2300000 Mobile users

2300000 Mobile users x 3 messages a day = 6.9 million messages a day

Lets assume the cost of a message on average is Rs. 1.25 (inclusive of tax)

So the money spent upon 6.9 million messages a day: 6.9 million x 1.25 = Rs.8.6 million

Similarly

20% of 23 million mobile users who gets 2 messages a day, would be:

23000000 x 0.20 = 4600000 Mobile users

4600000 Mobile users x 2 messages a day = 9.2 million messages a day

Cost of a message = Rs. 1.25 (inclusive of tax)

So the money spent upon 9.2 million messages a day: 9.2 million x 1.25 = Rs. 11.5 million

Again

30% of 23 million mobile users who gets 1/2 message a day, would be:

23000000 x 0.30 = 6900000 Mobile users

6900000 Mobile users x 1/2 message a day = 3.45 million messages a day

Cost of a message = Rs. 1.25 (inclusive of tax)

So the money spent upon 3.45 million messages a day: 3.45 million x 1.25 = Rs. 4.3 million

Summing up all the money spent on these messages in ONE day would be

8.6million + 11.5 million + 4.3 million = 24.4 million Rupees.

And the money spent over 30 days (assuming the religious scholars do not get to see the moon in time)

24.4 million x 30 = 732 MILLION RUPEES or

Wohoo!! Now that is an amount. I believe you have a fine idea what I am implying here. I am not quite sure that if I had forwarded those messages to the X number of people could have brought a good news to me that day. But if we all, collectively, feel the need of hearing a good news once and for all. Then may be we could actually contribute those few rupee that we spend everyday (on sending sacred messages to our beloved friends and family) on some better cause. Such as to the millions of displaced homeless, shelter-less, food-less and clothes less people.

May be if we just do it for one month. For the month in which we are asked to be slightly more religious then we normally are. Which we most commonly obey.

Then may be we will get a good news Someday!