Wordless Wednesday # 4

Little Monks -Palampur

Music in My Pocket !

I am the sort of person who abhors change of any kind, especially if the change is technology related. I am not at all technologically savvy and as my tech – geek friends put it not so kindly, for someone who’s worked in the IT industry for the past 8 years, I should be downright ashamed of my lack of knowledge! But I simply can’t seem to understand or operate half the technological devices out there. The latest technological gizmos and inventions do not make me quiver with anticipation and excitement. They just make me nervous and I continue to stick to my current way of life like a limpet stuck fast on a rock! Off course, technology has changed and continues to change our lives for the better. It’s just that I am not one of those people who go eagerly with the flow, I am one of those who trudge along grumpily, resisting with all their might!

So I guess I was the only person on the face of this planet who didnt exactly whoop with joy when Apple invented the iPod.For the life of me, I couldnt understand what the fuss was all about.I wondered what sort of people liked to walk about with earphones dangling out of their ears all the time. Music means a lot to me, life would be pretty pathetic and drab without any music; but for me listening to music also requires a certain time and place. `You can’t just listen to music anywhere and all the time, I mean then it would just be a distraction` or so I told everybody who cared to listen.

And then, Apple introduced their iPod Nano while I was in Japan. Now, the land of the rising sun is one place where you would be forgiven if you assumed that the kids there are born with earphones growing out of their ears like some sort of extra body parts. Everybody, and I mean everybody right from school kids to housewives to business men, to the guy sweeping the road have earphones stuck in their ears. Even the cook in my favorite restaurant cooked while listening to music on his iPod. iPod Nano was introduced in Japan a few days before Christmas and the people went almost berserk. They were actually queuing up in the snow to buy it as if their life depended on it. The iPod mania seemed to infect my friends as well and within weeks they had all bought one. Suddenly it became almost impossible to have a decent conversation with them. I had a long commute to work,but I really enjoyed it because almost all my friends used the same train and time flew by as we chatted and laughed together. Not any more! Now all of them plugged in their iPods as soon as they left home and spent all the commute time tapping their feet to music only they could hear while I stared moodily out of the window. All efforts to make conversation were met with blank looks till I yanked the earphones out of their ears. It made me feel totally lonely and isolated. Life I guess become good for them but truly miserable for me! My pleas that I was bored or threats on how anti social they had all become fell on deaf or rather on earphone- plugged ears. Instead, every time I complained they told me what a big idiot I was for missing out on something so good.Soon,I was mighty fed up of feeling left out in a world entirely dominated by a tribe of iPod zealots.So I grumpily tramped off to the nearest mall to buy myself an iPod nano. Once there I was confronted with iPods in a dazzling array of colors and a whole lot of paraphernalia I couldn’t make head or tail of. Any how I chose a blue colored iPod nano and returned home feeling very smug and pleased with myself.

I then spent a considerable amount of time uploading songs in it. Finally, I plugged in the iPod and in that instant my life changed! After I had got used to having earphones in my ears (yes I am weird that way I don’t like things like earphones at all!) I was totally having a blast! I took to the iPod as a fish takes to water! The endless commute became easier once I started using my iPod. Reading was not possible while standing in a crowded train but listening to music was and the music helped me forget the milling rush and the crush of humanity around me ! I used to listen to a lot of Hindi songs then, may be because I was so far from home and there was something very comforting about listening to Bollywood songs in a foreign land ! Maybe it is nostalgia but even now whenever I listen to those songs I am instantly transported back to those train rides to and fro from work. Shortly after I bought the iPod I joined a gym. The trainer had one look at me spilling out of my clothes and put me on a very strict regime which I felt would most definitely kill me.I used to plug in the iPod as soon as I started walking on the treadmill and listening to music helped me take my mind off images of my legs buckling under me and of my lungs bursting. At work having a cup of strong coffee when I felt sleepy was replaced by listening to some music. When things became too stressful, all I had to do was listen to some soothing music on my iPod. I no longer cribbed about feeling left out, I was a converted iPod zealot now! My iPod was my faithful companion during long train rides, endless waits at the airport for connecting flights and even while I stood in a line waiting to pay for my groceries. I fell in love, and am still in love with my iPad Nano. It’s sleek and feather light and I love the idea of carrying my music in my pocket. I’ve had it for close to five years now and can’t imagine a life without it ! The iPod changed my life again but this time it changed for the better!
I look at the latest technological gizmos with a less jaundiced eye now.I am secretly wondering if I should buy kindle although for the sake of public façade I still vociferously maintain how much I love the crispy feel of paper as I turn a page and the comfort of a book in my hand and how kindle will spoil all that !

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Wordless Wednesday # 3

A book for all seasons !

As someone who is a certified Bookoholic I am fond of all the books that I have. Some books I like because they make me laugh, some because they make me think and some because they are sheer masterpieces with words woven into them as beautifully as an intricate tapestry! And then there are some special books that you can read again and again and again and never tire of. They give you the same comfort as a soft fluffy blanket on a cold winter day, warm and familiar. Books by Ruskin Bond make me feel that way. All his books are precious to me but there is one particular book by him that is very very close to my heart. And that book is Scenes from a Writer`s Life.
 

Scenes from a Writer`s Life is basically a memoir in which Ruskin Bond talks about his childhood years in Dehra, the brief but lonely years he spent in New Jersey and London as a struggling writer and his nostalgia for his friends and for India while he was there. I bought this book about 13 years back, just a few days after it was published.I guess the timing was simply perfect because a few weeks later I got an opportunity to go to Japan. I was very excited about it, it was something I had wanted for a long time. But my happiness was also tinged with little niggling fears. It was my first time in a foreign country and the first time I was going to be away from home for so long! As I packed my stuff for the year long stay, I mulled over which of my books I should take with me. Airlines to Japan only allow you a measly 20 kgs so I could hardly carry all of my books, much as I wanted to ! I had a hard time deciding the few books I wanted to take with me and I am so glad I chose Scenes from a Writer`s Life as one of them. This book turned out to be a real blessing in those first few harsh and lonely days that I spent in an alien country without any family or friends. Sitting in my small apartment in Tokyo, as I turned the pages and read Ruskin Bond`s poignant descriptions about the time spent with his friends in Dehra and his reluctant decision to leave India to become a writer, I could relate to it instantly. I could understand his loneliness, his yearning to get those days back again and yet his determination to follow his dream. In the chapter, “The Pure, the Bright and the Beautiful” Ruskin Bond writes about his going away「A month, only a month and I shall leave with the autumn…… I wish time could stand still now, this very minute, and that life could carry on this way. But my accursed ambition would not have it !」It was the same “accursed” ambition that had brought me so far from home and family to Japan! During those days, this book was my solace, something I turned to whenever I felt homesick. I read this book every night before I fell asleep and to a lonely and troubled heart this book was a great comfort and a source of inspiration!

Japan is almost a second home to me now, a country that I have returned to again and again. But even now, all I have to do is turn the pages of this book and I am instantly transported back to those very first days in Japan ! I have had this book for over a decade now and have read it innumerable times. It has become rather worn over time, but this is one book I can never let go. It has too many memories attached to it !
Another very very special thing about this book is that it has Ruskin Bond`s autograph in it. I had an opportunity to meet Ruskin Bond when he was in Delhi for a Book Reading and from all his books that I have I chose Scenes from a Writer`s life to get autographed! You can see his autograph here. Although its not a very clear picture!

I am extremely fussy about lending or giving away books, and It will be very difficult to get me to part with this book but if I have to lend it, it will be to someone who really appreciates what this book is all about. This book is not for the logical, calculative kinds, this book is for people who follow their hearts more than their minds!

This book should go to someone who is trying to chase his dreams. In his unobtrusive, gentle manner, Ruskin Bond might just give him some courage!

Note - This post has been written for the Blog Adda My Oldest Book and its memories Contest in collaboration with  FriendsofBooks.com.

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Haiku - Memories

A handful of memories

some lost dreams

like sand slipping through my fingers