Ipod and brothers.

Returning from Amsterdam to his home in the northern vale of India, my friend wanted to buy an apple ipod-nano 30 GB-239 euros, for his brother. Pottering around in the Media market, he was deliberating whether he must buy the expensive gadget for his brother or settle for a decent 1GB ipod. I agreed with the hodgepodge of thoughts that were following him everywhere. It felt like a hovering thought bubble on his head. I am a witness to the clash that was ensuing between his providence and the urge to pamper his brother. The latter made home with the trophy by conquering rational thinking.

How I then wished that I all my thoughts could be automatically be transferred to my system. Like a wire that could transfer all my e-thoughts to my laptop in my bedroom, or to my blogspace.

I found it incredibly unbecoming of my friend to feed his MBA pursuing brother's wish to flaunt the newly-acquired ghetto blaster in front of his friends.

Let me jot down what my mind could decipher from the wide display of the beat boxes. The Apple ipods are available are in 5 vibrant colors, in the memory capacity of 1, 2, 4, 8, 30 and 80 GB. The cost ranging from $79 to $349. The storage capacity of songs spanning from 500 to 20,000 songs.

The younger brother wanted to flaunt the new thing in front of all his friends. You know the peer approval things that most of the college-going 20 somethings that blindly strive for. I could imagine the , "Kya mast cheez hain yaar", reponses from the younger brother's freinds. The wide beam of happinyness that would swell the younger brother's psyche.

20,000 songs??? 80 GB?? You got to be kidding. I have a feeling that we are grossly overdoing many things be. Do we listen to all these 20,000 songs. Ok, we may not store 20K songs, but even photo graphs, documents, movies, etc. 80GB? Do you want to sit inside the gizmo? Well, maybe i am terribly old-fashioned in this regard. I know, I know... I maybe sounding like my mother, or maybe your mother. Yes, I am already aged in my capacity to accept things.

I do not how fabulous a gift technology is. I do not understand the joy of having more for less, in these aspects. I am not a gizmo freak. I would be very happy with a 1GB player.
I think every second humans develop certain wants that superpass the ones that they originally possessed. From acquiring a new cell phone each month, to a new watch each time they chance their eyes on. The bottom line is there is no difference between needs, wants and wishes.

Coming back to the episode, my other friend challenged me that all college going guys are the same. They would easily succumb to peer pressure. They love to fluant it, if they have it. All guys love attention that these exorbiantly priced things can attract. Well, well, well... All guys are mostly the same, but I was not sure if they are the same in all respects. I dialled my brother's cell phone number. Let me call him by his initials. DD.. He is also in college, studying to attain his bachelor's degree in engineering. I ran him through the range of the ipods available, and asked him what he wants.

Me: Which one do you want? From 1 GB to 80 GB...
DD: 80 GB. You got to be kidding gal.
DD: How many songs can a 1 GB hold?
Me: Hmmm.. 250.
DD: Get me a GB. That is more than enough. I can always sync my ipod.

Hail to sanity and my brother.