It was a Japanese-made National Panasonic (it was known so back then) portable cassette tape recorder – a horizontal contraption with piano like keys with the 'record' key blue in colour and rest of them in white. Back then it was a prized possession, akin to i-Phone these days. Strict 'be Indian, buy Indian' customs laws ensured a halo of remoteness to these 'phoren' offerings. Those found in the Indian shop shelves were unreliable desi offerings like Weston or equally dubious fakes of Japanese and German brands, which smooth talking salesmen tried to palm off to gullible customers.
The era of unwieldy record players was winding down to a close and handy portable cassette recorders were making inroads to the world of music lovers. The fastidious care that records and the record players' needle demanded hastened its journey to oblivion. The jokes surrounding the needle getting stuck and song lines getting repeated were numerous. Moreover records could not be 'erased' with newer chartbusters and hence proved quite pricey.
An added plus over the record players was the capacity of tape recorders to record one's voice. Though I must confess that, after much coaxing by others, I dared to do it only once!
As for cassettes, customs laws played spoilsport yet again and good brands like Sony, Hitachi etc were beyond aam aadmi's reach and he had to rest content with questionable offerings.
The result was that quite often these cassettes used to get stuck with the tape getting entangled in the playback head. It had to be removed with extra care and had to be spooled back into the cassette using a pencil.
The advent of Gulf boom created a great leap of aspiration for hi-tech Japanese electronic goods among middle class in India and Dubai turned out to be a procurement hub, thanks to its relaxed customs laws.
The 'two-in-one' stereo cassette player became the ultimate instrument for musical nirvana among the middle class. The greater the output of the set the more admired it was, something akin to bike enthusiasts' obsession with 'cc'. In many of the drawing room family photographs taken in that era, the stereo cassette player used to be an unwitting presence.
However the customs laws ensured that those trying to bring in these goods had a harrowing time on landing in Indian shores. It also encouraged smuggling and spawned a grey market for these goods. The situation eased up only after the Indian economy got liberalised and global brands like Sony, Samsung started setting up plants in the country.
The coming of VCRs and the proliferation of TV stations in India did dent the demand for stereo cassette players and they soon got relegated to background. The idiot box became the new cynosure of middle class vanity and they lapped up TV serials and filmy offerings like 'chitrahaar' with gusto.
The ultimate death knell to cassette players came with the advent of CD players. The boxy, spooly offering soon became un-cool compared with a sleek teacup coaster sized discs. The superior quality of sound and greater longevity were added features.
But for me, the pull of the cassette is so strong that even now during conversations I often mistakenly utter 'cassette', while I actually mean a CD.
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