I'll miss you my Nike!. Review on Apple iPod Nano

Ya, that's what I called my iPod nano - Nike.

I still remember the day when I pulled Nike out of that uber-cool packaging and held it tenderly in my hand, lest it got scratched. The shiny back of the first generation Nano was the first thing I noticed and once I it switched on to see the small display light up in colour, I knew I was in love.

The love affair had actually started a couple of weeks before, when I first saw the pictures of the newly launched iPod - Nano, they called it - on Apple's website. I had already heard about iPod's sound quality and I couldn't wait to have one of my own. It was overpriced considering my budget and I was in a dilemma if I actually needed this expensive music player, when there were cheaper options available. Obviously nothing, at that time, matched the aesthetics of Apple's products. And the opportunity of possessing the latest from the iPod family(and be able to show it off once I returned back to India) was too hard to resist.

I spent the next hour intuitively playing around with iTunes and added the few mp3 songs that I had on my laptop to my new toy. I hooked up the earphones and caressed the outer wheel with my finger, lightly making a circle on it. The songs scrolled by and the Nano made a light "tik-tik" sound; happiness suddenly had a new sound! And as I played my first songs on Nike, I could not help but marvel at the clarity of the sound that filled by ears.

I'm not a person who blindly copies entire albums from the internet to their music players. I have a distinct, even if eclectic, taste in music and I ensured that unless I really liked a song AND I had entire information about that song, it did not find a place in my Nano. Consequently, I devoted a lot of time in the next days with my audio CDs, internet and iTunes swelling up iPod to a sizeable library.

I noticed the many apparent deficiencies of the iPod Nano - not having an in-the-box charger, no FM Radio, no sound recording, no ability to add tags, no sorting of songs - but I chose to live without them. And this was because iPod did what it did, best - play amazing music! In the initial months, it used to stay with me constantly whether I went to office(even though it wasn't exactly allowed, I fitted neatly in my pocket to go unnoticed) or out on trips. On a bus journey, it made hours go past like minutes. I can’t keep track of how many times I’ve fallen asleep to the tune of my favourite songs playing on this little thing.

I still remember that rainy day very vividly, when I had to urgently be at work and had no means of transport to take me to office. I yelled out to rickshaw-wala outside my apartment and as I settled under the leaky hood of the rickshaw, I carefully pulled out Nike from my pocket. So fond am I of rains and rain songs, that I created a special Genre for Malhar and Classical Songs of Monsoons in it. Just as I played Anand Malhar sung by Kishori Amonkar, I was transported to a different world. Suddenly, the incessant blowing of horns by vehicles around ceased to exist. The only sound that remained was that of the divine notes praising the rains and clouds. It seemed as if the rain drops had started dancing to the exquisite notes of “Barsat Ghan Aayo Rangilo”. It was truly an ecstatic moment and one that will stay with me forever. And I have to thank my iPod Nano for many such special moments.

I’ve had a wonderful time playing the Music Quiz on the Nano, and in fact it is a great way to remind yourself of a certain song that you’d have forgotten existed in your library of some 400 songs. I almost always got all the songs right, considering I had every song hand-picked and tagged correctly.

I’ve had to buy accessories for the bare Nano in the form of a USB charger and an FM transmitter. The FM transmitter is a handy tool which turned my Nano into a mini-radio station; a great way to listen to it on long road trips in my car with an outdated music system. I found the iPod covers available in the market way too pricey. My mother very lovingly made out little sleeves at home, so I could keep my Nike snug. My thoughtful sister brought a cover for it when she came back from USA. I never had the heart to remove the transparent film that came stuck on the front of the Nano, even though it had started peeling off from a side.

A couple of weeks back, after Nike turned 3, my wife least-expecting asked me for a mirror to check her makeup. I polished it against my shirt and held out the shiny back of my Nano to her face. She smiled and I proudly returned it to its case.

Then last week, out with us on a trip, Nike vanished! And I still cannot come to terms with the fact that I’ve lost my favourite possession. This piece is an ode to Nike – my iPod Nano. I’m not sure when I can replace it but definitely it is a must have for any music lover.