On having an ipod

I've never been good at taking care of my things. For instance, my computer doesn't obey me on anything and downloads stuff according to its own whims, my cell (which was one N72) got soaked in water twice before it decided that I don't deserve a display and later worked only when I startled it by hitting it with a hard object twice... but I lost that mobile along with my dear bag at some place I can't remember just before I broke my sun glasses and lost my bike key... I have never had a pen for more than a week in my entire life and my clothes are always stained and crumpled (especially now as I have to do my own laundry).

But I've got an ipod (which I got exchanged, because I messed up the original one) which really understands me. It's a small apple shuffle and I hold it dear because of a lot of reasons. Over the months it has become one of my closest friends. I put a selection of songs in it and kept it in the 'shuffle' mode because it's like the roller-coaster. You don't know what to expect next. The orderly playing of songs is just like a merry go round, you know whats coming and it just goes round and round. So, as I said this ipod really empathises with me.....When I am in a hurry and have to walk fast, it lets Chester cry 'I become so numb' and I find myself galloping. When I'm tired and walking slowly at the end of a long day, it gets SPB into the act and he melts into 'munpaniya, muthal mazhaiya' or Sonu Nigam eases his honey coated voice into 'kal ho na ho'. When I'm walking to classes, it introduces James Blunt and when I'm alone in buses admiring the countryside, it launches the genius of Rahman. He starts song after song, goes into a myriad of instrumental magic, builds up the momentum and ends up in symphonic style, drenching your heart out. But there are times when my ipod has its glum moments (after all it is a being too, and it has its mood swings!!). For instance, when I finish talking wonderfully with my girlfriend and can't control the smile on my face, it plays Bob Dylan or 'yeh jo des hai tera'. But then I don't change the song because I don't want to interfere in its free will and force my thoughts into it. I try talking to it but sometimes it's just not in the mood to listen. But I feel that it has the right to be like this because only a few days back, when I felt I had to let out my anger, it came up with 'time to play the game' and 'behold the king, the king of kings...on your knees dog' by Motorhead. I had ended up becoming artificially mean and it had cheered me up and I had thanked the little shuffle with all my heart. So after such a performance I felt I had to bear with the 'bob dylan' indulgences of my shuffle, because I honestly felt that it has earned it.

So we have our good days together and not so good days, but the thing is, it's always there for me (unless it runs out of battery). So I charge it up and it charges me up and we both pull it off at the end. It never worries about the dress I'm wearing or the things I did that day or what would I think of it if it didn't say hi. All it asks is that I pay a visit to it once in a while, plug it in my ears and spend some quality time with it. When no one else is there, it is always around to get my feet back on the ground, to make me smile and to make me feel, to finish a day off in solitude or to start one with vigour.

So, cheers - to shuffle and and its load of songs...