On Father’s Day, give your dad the gift of knowledge – teach him how to recharge his phone connection and he will thank you forever.
In many ways, your dad was the first hero of your life. As a child, you looked up to your father as a strong protector and nurturing authority in your life. If you were ever in a spot, you could trust your dad to get you out of it. There was nothing he could not do, and no problem was ever too big for him to solve.
Except, now that you are a grown up you realise that there is one thing that keeps defeating him: digital technology. Your dad is not well-versed with the digital medium – he uses chatting and IM quite haltingly, and he is often afraid of pressing the wrong keys and doing the wrong things. Naturally, he comes to you every time he wants to know how to use a new feature on his phone, or download an app. Mostly, he entrusts you with the task of recharging his phone.
This Father’s Day, gift your father the precious gift of mobile savvy: teach him how to do his first prepaid recharge by himself.
Your dad, and his first prepaid recharge…
Your father will initially be nervous about doing his first prepaid recharge by himself. He is not as tech savvy as you are, and he fears pressing the wrong buttons and reaching a site/page that he doesn’t know how to navigate. He may even be completely at sea in terms of understanding how mobile tech works on his smartphone.
The point is: be patient and guide him gently through all the steps, so that he can gain the confidence to do his first prepaid recharge, and subsequent recharges, by himself.
This is how you can teach him to do his first prepaid recharge:
- Open the recharge app on his phone.If your dad is an Airtel customer, he will already have the myAirtel app on his phone (or you may have installed it for him previously). Guide him on opening the app and studying the home page to find the words ‘Prepaid recharge’.
- Or use the mobile provider’s website.If your father is befuddled by the smartphone app, you can instead open the Airtel website on his phone. Teach him to access the Airtel website on his smartphone, and navigate the home page to find the legend ‘Recharge’. Under this, guide him to select ‘Phone’ so that he can be directed to the few steps for online recharge.
- Teach him to look out for offers and packs. Mobile providers like Airtel have ongoing offers that your father can avail at the time of doing his first prepaid recharge. Teach him how to avail of any such offer. Or the site/app will display quick recharge options as well. He can recharge using one of these options in case he doesn’t want to input a specific recharge amount.
- Teach him to pay online. This is where it gets a little tricky: if your dad has never transacted online before, then he might be a little afraid to do so for the first time. Add his card on his phone and take him through all the steps of paying using the card or net banking.
- The recharge is complete. Once he pays, the first prepaid recharge is successfully completed. He should check if there is a message from Airtel mentioning the same.
Apart from doing the mobile recharge, teach your dad basic things about phone usage, like reading the news, watching movies or TV shows, or even making video calls. Additionally, he can explore the phone’s camera and take photos and videos in his spare time. If he likes to keep his mind occupied, he can play online Sudoku, or Words With Friends.
