Life is Random

I am the only person I know who still sports an Ipod Shuffle. Nope, not that tiny ones available in pink and green, but the one that looks like a thumb drive…. Fuck, it is a thumb drive.

I bought it 3 years back at the same cost of a 4gb nano nowadays. I remember bugging my folks for cash so that I could have it before our company outing. I'd be caught dead stuck in a bus for four hours listening to the endless prattles of my co- workers whom I hardly knew at that time without any sound trip. I remember hurrying up home with my brand new Ipod in tow, only to realize that the guy gave me a 512MB when I paid for a 1GB. I rushed back to Glorietta and had it replaced the same day!


Finally in my room all ready to upload my ramones and clash and sex pistols, the Itunes CD wont work. Apparently it doesn’t work with!! Windows 95. Yes! I still had windows 95 year 2004! So, I hurried to a friends place and loaded my ipod with his ramones, clash and sex pistols.

Fast forward to 2007, when even my 32 year old cousin who has never held a job in his life sports a 60gb Ipod Video, I am still stuck with my Ipod Shuffle. Once in a while I will pass by the Mac shop on gb3 and I would longingly look at the 8gb Black nano and promise myself the next pay day I'm gonna get one of those. But the next paycheck always go up in smoke (literally) and so I reason to my self that shuffle is good enough, that it’s sturdy enough that even if you haul it across the room, or step on it, or accidentally kick it while its plug on the usb port, it would still work. Try doing that with a Nano!


Two months ago, the USB went off – as in you could see all the chips and tiny wires inside - so I superglued and taped it back to it’s casing. Amazingly enough, it sound like good as new! Just a month back, it lost its shuffling capabilities. It would only play songs the same order you have uploaded them. Say, you are looking for the 100th track, you have to press the next key 100 times! Pain in the ass (or should I say thumb?), isn't it?


Trust me, I've tried losing it a dozen of times. Would leave it anywhere - in the office, in the beach, in a party, but it always finds its way back to me. And now, it's just one of those things I could not let go. I hardly qualify as a sentimental person. Ask my friends, they know how calculating and deliberate I could be, dropping people in my life at a whim. And yet I am feeling this attachment to this innate white piece of plastic. I guess its because this piece of plastic has seen me grow. From an angst-ridden-post-teenager-punk to a genuine lover of music. From a manic depressive suicidal in a quarter life crisis to someone who is realizing the meaning of it all. It's my company whenever I am alone. I play a song and I am with someone, hearing his or her pain or joy. I have brought my Ipod in various parts of the world, and in turn it has brought me to various points of my cosmic consciousness. And together, we flow through waking life and vivid dreams, giving chance a chance.