Missing the radio of my car

Am missing my car...and particularly the radio in it - for it is undobtedly my best friend and gives me good company for minimum 2 hours everyday, 5 days a week, unless Mamata didi calls a bandh in Kolkata. I love music - the listenning side of it. Well, I also love singing but my neighbours dont entertain me, so I have restricted myself to the listenning part of it. The radio of my car is my only mode of listenning to music - yes, actually listenning to music is banned at my place - there is (un)fortunately only one home theatre system and the TV as well as Cd/dvd player and/or radio plays through that same god damn it set ( i think they call it a receiver or something like that). And that is co-owned by my daughter and her father. And they have banned all forms of only audible recreations at home .Its strictly audio-visual...and visual also is decided by them most of the time (well, I think all the time). So I am not privileged enough to listen to music at home.

I dont repent. Because my Radio takes care of this passion of music. And provides me with a great sense of achievment as well. You see, when you get something after a strenuous effort, the pleasure is always more. Likewise, when I want to listen to the music I turn the knob of my radio and it croaks out music at a pitch of its choice depending on which direction is my car moving and/or the antaenna is pointing to...and that too not instantly as i turn the knob on. Many days it takes about 2-4 minutes to get started. Out of frustation often I whack it on its head and he promptly obliges me. And then after almost 5-10 mintues of ruthna - manana my radio sings out - the satisfaction that it gives me cannot be compared with the best of music systems in the world.

My radio has a mind of its own. He decides for me which station he wants me to listen to. I am not sure about whether it has any secret tie-ups with any of these stations, or whether is it a free lance thing - but whatever it is the geast of the matter is that it decides - I dont mind because for me getting to hear whatever channel he pleases itself is a luxury beyond my dream. This absolute daily pleasure is something that i am missing here very much.

The home theatre reminds me of the complexity of life now a days. And I thought science and technology makes your life easier. Life is not at all simple with these hi-fi gadjets these days. Take the equipment called "receiver" itself. If you have a lot of audio/video players and you want them to learn sharing and caring and thus buy in the equipment called "receiver" so that they all share the same speakers, then you need a Receiver. In other words, a Receiver is a piece of equipment which accepts input from several audio/video sources and outputs nothing. It is an entertainment device though most of the entertainment is ruined while setting and conncting it up.

My daughter is better of with all these gadjets than me. I remember once I was in a guest house in Delhi and the room had a TV and a music system and had 3 remotes and some peculiar combination of switching them on in order to be able to watch TV or listen to music. It had taken me half an hour to figure out the i was holding the remotes upside down. Not that it made any sense to me the right side up, and not that I could succeed in switching the TV on. It so happened that I had stayed there for a month and every day after coming back from office I would call up room service to switch on my TV and would keep it on till the next day till the time I left for office. So you see, life is not at all simple with all these inventions. I never had any problem with the first black n white TV we had at home when I was a kid. I could easily switch it on and roll the know to get the two and a half channels that it aired! Now with 250 + channels I get thoroughly confused with TV.

So you see, what i was saying is that I miss my radio. N now am in a room all alone by myself. It has a huge tv set and fortunately only one remote to operate it. All my hurdles are overcome. No body can disturb me listenning to music and watching television...but alas, even then am unable to watch or listen...you wonder why? Because there is hardly any English channel out here, forget my good old Hindi channels...its only local channels - and I ahve no clue what they talk about.

So...am missing my radio and am missing my car...one more reason why am counting my days to go back...as if I didnt have enough!