When Audio Cassettes Were Alive

Audio cassettes are extinct. The era of cassettes was over long time back. Cassettes have been dumped by the music listeners in favour of CDs, free MP3s, torrents, P2P softwares,DVDs, pen drives and so on. Cassettes look like dwarfs in front of such modern avenues of music storage.Walkmans has been replaced by an MP3 players and technology moves on.

But this article is not about highlighting the negatives. It’s about remembering the times when we played those audio cassettes on our stereo systems. The time when we would insert that rectangular shaped object in our stereo systems and hit the play button.The time when we took the trouble of rewinding and fast forwarding the cassette in order to listen to our favourite songs. The whole ordeal would feel worth the satisfaction of hearing your favourite song.
The time when CDs were a luxury of the rich and the elite. The time when cassettes were our saviours for good music at affordable rates and if we were cash starved, then we could always buy a blank cassette and record the content of other audio cassettes on it.The time when we would gift cassettes to our friends. The time when audio cassettes became a symbol of happiness for all the music listeners.

In my childhood days , I have bought a lot of English as well as Hindi cassettes. If I didn't have enough money, I would buy a Hindi cassette .Otherwise ,It would be English all the way. The Cassettes introduced me to a lot of good music like Incubus(morning view),Beatles(1),deep purple(the best of deep purple),John Mayer(room for squares) and a lot of other bands and artists. I had a cheap walkman too .I used to visit planet M quite regularly.

But look at how the times have changed! As of today, I have only a handful of cassettes left. My walkman has disappeared into oblivion. My stereo system has turned into a heaven for dust and spider webs. Planet M doesn't keep cassettes anymore. Last year, some music shops had kept a clearance sale on cassettes .My MP3 player has taken the place of the walkman. It’s just CDs AND DVDs all the way.
The cassette is dead but the sepia-toned memories still linger on.