The Walkman

I had been saving up ever since I started dreaming about precious little possessions. Mom had gifted us a plastic teddy bear piggy bank each(I chose the purple one, the other one was pink, my sister loves pink and I always take pride in seeing her happy, she's my little sister after all. ) , which would scratch my fingers each time I tried to open it up and count the coins.

This time the coins were to get lucky and go into the hands of a shopkeeper who sells electronics. Yes, I have been wanting a personal Walkman for myself. The joy of listening to my favorite songs with personal earphones, wow, bliss!! The personal touch of the Walkman and the cassette, it's a tape, and of course, the transparent outer case which clearly shows the mechanism inside.

How could one put in such lovely music into such a small piece of technology? Great work, really.

The day finally arrived where I had saved Rs. 895/-, the exact price of the Walkman which I wanted. The collection was done in about 8 months, with some extra change and coins from granddads and uncles, not to forget the 'no new dress' for Diwali if I wanted three hundred rupees straight(Man! That's a lot of money!!) for my piggy bank.

After some persuasion, mom accompanied me to the shop one weekend only to return back empty-handed. Apparently, any gadget requires dad's presence while buying. After four more days of impatient waiting the Walkman finally arrived home, yes, arrived, dad got it on his way back from office much to my disappointment. But then it's okay, at least I got it.

Without further ado, I opened the beauty after listening to all the usual parental advice about how I should behave well and study good and also use it minimally since it might affect my ears. Of course, the anecdote about how in their age there was only radio, that too at a neighbor's house from where the music would waft its way into their house and that's all the luxury they had until transistor radios came into their life.

The green package box had its own charm, I savored the beauty of the package with the blurred image of the Walkman on top, before opening it. 

Yes... Yes... Yes ... Yes ... It's mine, my very own Walkman. Artistic buttons with little signs for Rewind, Play, Pause, Stop, and Forward. Shiny powder blue outer case with a small window to see the cassette tape rotating inside while the music plays. 

I grabbed a cassette, inserted, plugged, and put the earphones on(they are indeed big for my tiny ears!). There goes, music to my ears, literally!!!

After a long and deep sigh, I plugged my size adaptable cushioned earphones on. It was connected to the present world's mini world, the mobile phone of course. My favorite song was just a touch away.

I soft touched the play button and as the music was playing, my head was reeling with all the struggle I had to go through to own a Walkman when I was 12. How I wish I could go back to my Walkman days! Just to experience those little cute joys after every mini-mission.