X-cuse me Please
There’s Always Music Somewhere
“It’s a beautiful piece of equipment,” she said, sure that I was going to like it, I had looked around all over for this equipment that would bring me the joy of my past, I was in Denver at a store that didn’t look out of the ordinary. These streets looked familiar, it was like the by lanes of Navi Mumbai, and thoughts came streaming from those days of old, of breaking house windows and starting gang wars in Lokhandwala, we were kids, just breaking the rule to prove a point and then I had moved out of the scene.
Years
later the news had come filtering in that now there were actual gangs in
Lokhandwala holding people to ransom, that was the fate of a third world
nation. “I am happy to be here,” I said
to the sales girl and got talking to her, she was from Tennessee and “damn, she
looked familiar too,” something about this town, my mind snapped back at
me. It always did these days, especially
when I sat on my “hiney” on that old armchair wondering and dreaming. “Am I drifting,” it would ask me and get me
out of my coffee induced reverie, “damn how I hated this feeling of
nothingness,” it felt like I was a 100 years old with my legs on a stool and
staring at the fire glowing deep and this warm, some would say “stupid” feeling
inside me.
Suddenly
she pointed out to a device lying invitingly on the glass rack all by itself,
did I say her name was Chara, “Chara, it looks divine.” She smiled finally, the tension of not
knowing what the customer wanted out of the way, and walked me to the aisle where
the device lay.
Logitech Squeeze Box Radio
She
turned it ON; it was a small intuitive looking power on and the light flashed
on a medium sized square panel of the black piece. There was a huge dial in the front “for navigating the Menu,” said Chara,
she was beginning to like the look in my eyes.
I
twisted the dials and got to a menu that said, “Internet Radio,” wondering what next, “press the damn dial,”
my mind said again, and I did softly pressing the large dial, suddenly the
world had opened up in front me, stations from all over, music, talk show,
sports shows. “I am beginning to like this device,” said my mind, “Can you
afford me,” the squeeze box seemed to be saying and just as I started to look
around for a tag,
Chara
was packed with energy and it all came out now, “Fantastic device, you are
going to love this one, it will give you company through the night, especially
the lonely ones and sir, I will pack in a battery at discounted price so you
could go cordless on the grass lands.”
The pitch had me convinced, “damn, how did she know I loved the
grasslands,” this time my mind was curious. “Don’t,” I told my mind, the deal
was done.
“Squeezebox
eh? This one was special and she knew it”
