When I fall in love..

Very early this morning I received this SMS.

"After criticising the ipod conceptually n calling it an elitist toy for the suburban brand whores ! Viraf has finally bought one!"

OK a bit of it is true.

True the original ipods were definitely the status symbols of the Brand whores (my term I admit) of Bandra (I refuse to tar all suburbanites with the same brush).

And I did have very valid reasons for that.

It was

Too Bulky,

had that Stupid little Dial in front,

Impractical to use in the gym

and a screen that was too small for video and irrelevant for audio.

And oh yes you HAD to use the clunky old i-tunes interface.

So for a very long time I stood valiantly against the tide and used a host of other MP3 players (the last two being integrated into my phone. (Sony Ericsson's and NOT a junk Nokia).

Then I saw the first images of the new shuffle.

And I fell in love.

Smaller than a matchbox, simple to operate, sensible storage space (I refuse to believe that you EVER need to carry 20 GB of music for your personal use.

In the interim I had also managed to find a decent site that allowed me download legal music for 9 cents irrespective of where in the world I live (something that Apple still does not do)

The new shuffle still had some serious competition from the new Sony Walkman. Exercise meter, calorie counter jerk advance mechanism a whole lot of little bits and bobs that made it the ideal accessory for use in the gym (which is the only place that I do use the thing).

The problem was that when I got to Heera Panna yesterday they had the Sony Cigar only in Sindhi Shiny Silver. Instant elimination!

The other reason for selecting the new shuffle was the clear realisation that no Brand Slave Bandraite would ever be seen dead in something so inconspicuous (and dull grey) which is "so badly designed "that when you clip it on the LOGO gets HIDDEN!" (How stupid is that!!)

So as of yesterday evening I carry about 200 randomly selected songs from my computer library and regale all the guys at the gym with a stunning rendition of stuff like "Let me entertain you" (the Softcell version), "White Wedding", selections from Rent and the original version of "Let's Dance" (NOT the crappy remix from Page 3).

Performances start at 7 pm on weekdays at the Inch by Inch gym (those guys should pay me for the publicity) with a special matinee on Sundays at 10 in the morning.

Who knows, if I really see that you are interested in exploring my talent I may even invite you for a command private performance in the sauna later.