Mysooru flashbacks 2: Welcoming 1996
It was our first year at college. Just so we get used to the rigours of engineering, all the Internal Assessment tests (IATs) were held over weekends. Our BUDding therefore, din't start till the second year. (For the uninitiated, BUD stands for Bangalore-Up-and-Down). Bangalore trips were once a month or even rarer. The only means of entertainment were some cassettes Harry, Prom and I had at the time. Harry's collection were mostly new Hindi ones with a few Bappi-Mithunda era ones thrown in for good measure; Prom was the more western music savvy of the three (pre-1995, Delhi was already swinging to the tunes of Times FM); as to me, I had a small collection of old Hindi songs. The first tape I bought in Mysore though was DDLJ.
Prom had borrowed a socialist era National Panasonic tape(only) player (NPTP) from his Granny. That was what helped us retain sanity, apart from some gully cricket with neighbourhood boys. The NPTP would do its job admirably only if the tape being played was held in place with a 3kg iron box. Getting all this setup in place was an art the three of us mastered in no time.
IATs stared somtime in December, which meant we welcomed 1996 from the confines of our bachelorpad. For someone who (still) feels Jan 1 is just another day, it took some effort on the part of Harry and Prom to convince me to stay up. It was then, waiting for the clock to strike 12am, that I had tea for the first time in over a decade. Prom convinced me that tea was a sleep antidote. (I know he'll take credit for changing yet another of my habits.. I can picture you smiling as you read this buddy :-)).
About 11:30pm or so, disaster struck. The rubber band-like contraption that connects the capstan to the motor gave way. Prom challenged Harry and me saying we'd better fix the NPTP for we were studying to become Electronics Engineers. The tools we had were a screwdriver and a rubber band. We got to work, prying out star screws with a normal screwdriver... and time was also running out. Finally, we managed to use the low tension rubber band to fix the problem temporarily and welcomed 1996 with DDLJ playing at 12AM!
When this story reached Prom's uncle, he threw up a gauntlet... if all three of us managed a distinction in the First semester, he'd buy us a new tape player. And so we did and welcomed a spanking new BPL 2-in-1 to our abode.
Prom had borrowed a socialist era National Panasonic tape(only) player (NPTP) from his Granny. That was what helped us retain sanity, apart from some gully cricket with neighbourhood boys. The NPTP would do its job admirably only if the tape being played was held in place with a 3kg iron box. Getting all this setup in place was an art the three of us mastered in no time.
IATs stared somtime in December, which meant we welcomed 1996 from the confines of our bachelorpad. For someone who (still) feels Jan 1 is just another day, it took some effort on the part of Harry and Prom to convince me to stay up. It was then, waiting for the clock to strike 12am, that I had tea for the first time in over a decade. Prom convinced me that tea was a sleep antidote. (I know he'll take credit for changing yet another of my habits.. I can picture you smiling as you read this buddy :-)).
About 11:30pm or so, disaster struck. The rubber band-like contraption that connects the capstan to the motor gave way. Prom challenged Harry and me saying we'd better fix the NPTP for we were studying to become Electronics Engineers. The tools we had were a screwdriver and a rubber band. We got to work, prying out star screws with a normal screwdriver... and time was also running out. Finally, we managed to use the low tension rubber band to fix the problem temporarily and welcomed 1996 with DDLJ playing at 12AM!
When this story reached Prom's uncle, he threw up a gauntlet... if all three of us managed a distinction in the First semester, he'd buy us a new tape player. And so we did and welcomed a spanking new BPL 2-in-1 to our abode.
posted by Ananth Narayan at
7:31 PM
2 Comments:
This writeup is just tooooo good Annie - really nice memories. The line about using the Iron to hold the tape brings a smile to me. I think I have that Iron in some attic. Or is it with you?
Hmm.. I don't have it.. proly in your attic :-)
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