LONG LIVE THE MIGHTY CASSETTE

“What is that song, Amma?” I asked my mother.

“A song by the famous Kishore Kumar”, she said with a smile. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked, not really looking for an answer. I nodded in amazement.

I had never heard the name or the song before, I was all of five. In fact, that was the first time I ever heard music or the first time I can remember at least. I walked towards the machine that was emitting this magnificent sound and moved towards one of the buttons.

“Don’t touch that”, she warned. I asked no questions and obeyed. Five years of experience had taught me not to disobey my mother. Not even Achan did that. So I kept looking at it in amazement. Sensing my curiousity, Amma stopped this incredible machine and pressed a button. And out it came.

A rectangle-shaped plastic object with two holes.

I looked at Amma for approval. She nodded. I took it in my hand and examined it like a doctor examining his patient. “It’s called a Tape”, she said, reading my thought. “This is what was playing”, she said.

Wow, I thought. There began my love for the Tape/Cassette. I would play any tape I could get my hands on. Achan’s Mozart, Amma’s Kishore Kumar, Gow’s mix tape, anything. I would play it on Sunday afternoons, before I went to sleep, before dinner. It made me smile and helped me sleep when Achan would force me to because I was too young to watch Baywatch or The X-Files.

Then came, the big day. My first cassette. My sister had grown tired of a cassette of a Tamil movie Thiruda Thiruda and she gave it to me because she found no use for it. I took it and there it was. All mine. Rewind. Fast-forward, Play, Pause, Record. I used every button just to check if it worked and hoping it would do something new each time.

Then came Backstreet Boys, Now That’s What I Call Music, Code Red, Minassaru Kannavu etc. I borrowed tapes, stole tapes, recorded tapes but made sure I listened to all of them. 

My Amma always told me (nope, not that life is like a box of chocolates) that it was important to read to get to know the world and learn about different places. For me it was music and the Tape was my window to the world outside my tiny little room in Vellore. It exposed me to different sorts of music, taught me how to sing and made me happy all the time.

But now the Tape is almost dead, taken over by the mighty CD (even he is dead), and the iPod. As I listen to the music on my uber cool smartphone, I’m grateful for the memories.

Tape, thank you for the music. 

Song for the day, this is the first song I think I heard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YAs2cQAiE8

TO SIR JOHN LENNON WITH LOVE,

Dear Sir John Lennon,
I hate the Beatles. There you go, I said it. Not talking about those creepy crawlies that crawl around the house when it is raining. I mean the band, the music, you, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Yoko whoever-the-hell Ono and all that Day Tripper music. I'm supremely confident that this will ruffle a few musical feathers and probably make you roll over in your grave, but here's why.

I must confess I had never listened to a full Beatles album till a week ago, when I coaxed my music-loving wife into buying me a Beatles album (Abbey Road) on the iTunes store in India.

"Why Beatles?", she said to me curiously. I shrugged, stared back and said "I don't know, its not that expensive plus I have never listened to a Beatles album ever". She smiled back at me.

For weeks, the album cocooned in my iPhone(shameless plug, Apple are you listening?) and I made my way around the tiny little musical world in my phone. And always skipped The Beatles collection. Mumford & Sons. Jack Johnson. Dave Mathews Band. John Mayer. Even Pritam (you know, that Bollywood music director who looks like he runs away from a barber). Never the Beatles.

Then one day, as I made my way back home through the muggy streets of Santa Cruz, Mumbai, I took the plunge. I mustered up the courage to listen and turned to Come Together. And hmm it was not that bad. In fact, I thought to myself, I could like this stuff and have conversations with people about how great you guys  are.
But that's where it ended. I lost track of what happened next and before I knew it, I was listening to something about someone playing in an Octopus's Garden. I played the other songs that I don't quite remember and I thought to myself what is the big deal!

And nothing has changed. I still hate The Beatles. I understand you set the precedent for what we listen today and for the music we have today and I am thankful for that. But I don't think I will ever understand your music. I understand you helped shape the musicians we have today, but I don't understand what the fuss is about.

Strangely enough, I came home that same day, switched on the TV and what do I see? You, on TV singing some song on how you lived in some sort of submarine.
One thing is for sure: I can run but I cannot hide.

Regards
Not a Beatles Fan
P.S. What were you doing with the Octopus in the Garden?

Till then, here is my song of the day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQtGqmi2O2U