Que sera sera

Long long ago when I was in college, ok I am not that old but now a days it does with Mp3s and downloadable versions, since in our dear ol days we were still listening to songs on cassettes. We couldn’t imagine an mp3 though ‘soft songs’ (napster) was known and I used to think a friend of mine lucky with a computer (a luxury at that time…we had one much much later…when I had already graduated and doing my PG) and a fast internet. I used to still rely on ol cassettes and used to collect my whole pocket money (for a 200 rs per month pocket money...money set aside apart from a quarterly railway pass…I was not a foodie and nor were my friends and we didn’t get embarrassed to carry a ‘dabba’…yes life was much humbler then) for a bi annual splurge on cassettes and books. Books though were always yellowed with use (I took second hands wherever and whenever I could find them), the cassettes were new (I had less option otherwise) and I found some real good ones. There was a “Mariah Carey: day dream”, a Richard Clayderman and some more. Now for one of such splurges at rhythm house (planet M didn’t exist then, it came in much later), bag already heavy with yellowed and dog eared books which included a bit or two of “M n Bs”, I saw this cassette labeled “down and by the memory lane”, I picked it up and saw the price. 125 rs (a paltry sum now), and don’t know why but got it, though the songs were unknown to me then. There were some gems in store for me. And some of these songs minus the accent helped me later to teach people English when I was teaching in classes. Some of them were “Que sera sera” by Doris day and “how much is that doggie in the window” by Patty page and “leaving on a jet plane” by John Denver. I still have the cassette somewhere (I hope so) along with its other companions who are almost forgotten due to lack of tape recorder and advent of digital gadgets like mp3s. what is however not faded are some aspects that I learnt, of beautifying my own life even if it is minus a lot of “must haves” of being happy with myself and creating a world where I could lose myself. (Music and books together always made me go in some kind of black hole from where even my better (?) half couldn’t dig me out…my normal chattery self would just be a hmmm…ah-ha…ok) and of course appreciate any kind of music and books