Let me start with the question. Is mobile your alarm? Do you use a speaker with a voice assistant as your alarm? Or you are just like me who wakes up to turn off the alarm before it says, it’s time to wake up. What is your story? Relevance? Well, there will be.
“But, I am worried. Every time, I try to write something, makes me feel that I have become old for which I do not have so good feeling, honestly” After reading my previous story about Sholay, at least 5 readers claimed that they were not even born. (laughs)
It was VHS in my previous story and now I am going to start with Turntable and Vinyl. I said it. Year? Just to play safe I would like to say the late 80s.
Okay, F’ it. Let’s start.
There is a school nearby(30 seconds walking distance) and I study at the primary level. Play. Eat. School. Pretty much sums up the daily routine of a kid. But, I can guarantee you, our (your and mine) mornings are not the same. I am singing Kishore Kumar’s song and singing so perfectly that even I am surprised that how well I am singing. It was the same as Kishore Kumar singing. I am very happy that I can sing so well. After a minute or two my eyes open and I am on my bed sleeping, it’s morning. I watch from the window, it’s early morning, and visibility from the window is very less. I can only see the shape of trees, birds are also chirping, maybe they have their way of saying Good Morning!!! 
I am singing Kishore Kumar song and singing so perfectly that even I am surprised that how well I am singing. it was the same as The Kishore Kumar singing.
Again, dad comes into the picture. He has a Record Player and as a morning routine, the first thing he does is play songs on his record player. and that my friend is my ALARM for my mornings. Time to wake up guys.
Now, you might have known, how was I singing Kishore’s song so well? I was dreaming, because dad played songs, I dreamt of singing the song, because I was able to hear the song in the background, and I thought I was singing. . Tell me if it also happened to you.
Pics: These are the gems I kept safely. Still in a good condition. I bought the player recently and gave life to these Vinyls, which dad bought in the 70s and 80s.
The same Alarm was used for years, however, there were changes in the medium over time. First, it was Record Player then there was Cassette Player for years.
My days used to start with beautiful songs of Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, R. D Burman, Mukesh and the list goes on.
I must say those were the seeds of music, dad sow in me.
Cut to, the boy who gets pocket money in late 90s. Started saving small amount of money just to buy a Walkman. After months of saving I managed to buy a Walkman for me which cost me around NRs. 2200. Oh yeah!!! The Walkman, it was not from Sony by the way. It took me years to know the fact that Sony released a portable cassette player in 1979, the model name was Walkman. The term “Walkman” became so famous that It quickly became synonymous with portable music players and is still recognized and used as a term to describe similar products today. Mine was from Aiwa.
After Aiwa, there was CD player, Portable Mp3 Player, Mobile, Youtube in Mobile and now I have Spotify on Voice Assistant Speakers.
Nowadays, I don’t need to buy a cassette or CDs or even turn on the computer to listen to music. “Hey Google/Siri, play songs on Spotify”, does the work, and she replies “Sure, playing Kishore Kumar on Spotify”
Beautifully written.
Thank you Gayatri
If you are a song lover then it is impossible to summarise about songs that have touched your soul in such a short paragraph, but, I must say, you have some skills ! You have strung your moments so beautifully that I can picturise to some extent, good one dai 😃. But I miss “Lata”, “Rahe na rahe hum, mehka karenge, banke……..”
Wow man tht was journey…..still you have those days gadgets 😲😲. Great write my friend, gave me a great read 👍🏻👍🏻.