My mom’s lullaby’s still ring loud in my ears and introduced me to the magical world of music. But after the I took the major steps with the help of my brother.
Prologue
Sometime in 1992, my brother asks Dad for a Sony Walkman as his birthday gift. My brother, with the help of his friends, also got cassettes of songs from the movie Bombay and even Michael Jackson songs. Running the walk man involves putting the batteries, which during those times, with our meager ‘pocket money’ was way beyond our means. Each set of two batteries lasted for about 2 to 2 and 1/2 hour of song hearing.
Whenever I got a chance, I used to make a quick dash to my brother’s room right next to my room, in the first floor of our Trivandrum home. There I would find him with his Walkman. After a lot of cajoling and request, he would let me have the soft round headphones and fit it on my ears. I can still feel the smell of the Walkman, the softness of the ear pads on my tiny ears. Sometimes I close my eyes and sometimes I look around. I was taken to a magical world of music. He used to allow me to keep the headphones for probably 10 minutes or so and after that, he used to take it back. But the music that I heard more than 20 or so years ago, still rings clear in my ears. Unlike the Teltronics TV that we had, the sound from the stereo (stereo was a new thing, back then) headphones were truly mesmerizing and inexplicable.