We used to have a old Tape recorder in our home. My Mom's collection includes some film songs and some film screenplay-dialogue Cassettes. I still remember some of the dialogues of an old Tamil movie ‘Vidhi"..My mom used to play that Cassette all the time.

I love old Tamil movie songs.. Few TV programs broadcast really old songs and I wanted so much to record my favorite old songs and listen to it again and again..Mainly in the night, when its dark and quiet, i wanted to just listen to the songs and dream away..The last thing my mom could afford was a walk-man and a Cassette..Dad, forget about it..if I go to him with this request, he will turn me to ashes with his stare.

Anyways, When I was in College, my mom said I can buy my favorite item using the stipend money for my birthday.Its 1000 bucks and I was thinking over and over again, whether to buy a camera or a Walk-man.I wanted to buy a Camera as well, bcoz I was interested in photography also. I thought, if only I have a camera, I will become some kind of artist..anyway that faded..

So finally I decided to go with the Camera and asked my friend to buy me a Yashica Camera and gave him the money..Then came my birthday. He handed me the Camera and a gift for my birthday. I opened the gift package and there it is, a brand new Walk-man (He is from a well to do family). Oh, I was so happy that day.

So there I went, I collected all my stash and bought an empty casette and carefully selected my favourite old songs and gave it for recording.. I was so enthu when I received the recorded Cassette and in the night, I was listening to the old songs blissfully, my heart is brimming with excitement of the possibilities, that I can save money and record all my favorite songs..

and all of a sudden the walkman gave some weird noise and I opened it. To my horror, the casette tape is caught in somewhere in the walkman and half-of the tape was out by the time I pulled it out carefully.

One cannot imagine my grief. Anyway, I tried to roll the tape with my fingers, it dint work. And I carefully removed the screws in all corners, opened the Casette and tried to put the tape in its place.My dad woke up and he was roaring at me for turning on the light and wasting electricity. I looked at him with my eyes gleaming with grief and I guess he sensed something and he went back to sleep without saying anything further..I went back to my work, carefully placed the tape, placed the top of the cassette and tightened the screws.

With so much anxiety, I put the Cassette back in the walkman and switched it on..To my great relief, it started playing without any trouble. For some time, I was handling the tape with so much care.. Anyways, I’ll just say it played for long time with no issues..

I don’t know where that Tape is now..even the Camera or my Walk-man..Probably its somewhere in my mom’s storage or its sitting in my big red suitcase, I used till I went to work..Whenever I go home (my parents home that is), I’ll think about finding the red suitcase in all the mess but something or other will come, so I never had a chance..

The other day I had all the time in the world..so I searched the net and found all the old songs,downloaded and copied to a CD using my Dell Laptop. I play it in my Boombox and play it in the six-cd changer in my Brand new Car..

Well, What can I say, its never the same..Yes, I enjoyed the songs but it dint excite me one bit..

I looked at the digital camera and the Camcorder sitting in some corner in my house, untouched for a long time..