Cassette

Amu was clearing up old boxes. Some old papers, entry passes to concert, some brochures of travel, some purchase lists, occasional notes. That was all that was there. She thought she should throw them out but somehow could never manage to do it, each piece of trash was some memory, some story. Each time she would open those boxes, thinking they had been occupying unnecessary space, each time she would tell herself she would throw them out and each time she would fail. Each of those objects were entry tickets to time machine for her, they would push her to old times, she would stand there for hours and watch the past play infront of her. Those boxes were like her treasure, like a child she would open them with great enthusiasm and be lost in them for hours together. A treasure which only made sense to her, a treasure which couldn't be passed on as a legacy. For they were just piles of papers and nothing more, they were piles of papers yet everything for her.  While she was medling with those piles of papers, something unusual fell out, a cassette. She didn't remember anything about it, she navigated through the networks in her head but nothing came to her mind when she looked at the cassette. She didn't remember having put it in that box. It was a dark brown old tape, with nothing written on the label except a few pen marks.
She was curious, she wanted to know how this alien had managed to seep into her memory. She had a tape player but it hadn't been used for a long time now. Who ever listens to tapes now. It lay there in one corner, unattended to. She got it out and dusted it, and tried to play the cassette. It screeched. She stopped it. Hit it on the head, a trick which could make any electronic gadget work. And it began to play, she could hear the sound of blank tape and then while she was about to switch it off, music started to play. It was "Mahaganapatim" in a shrill voice with drums and violins, a fusion.
"You always play the same music all the time. Why don't you play that song, the one with drums", She heard her aunt say.And then little Amu would play the cassette and they would sit and admire the music for hours. "I won't play that...I'll play something I like", Amu would sometimes shout at her, then just after a while they would both be discussing a film. It was fifteen years since she had left, it was fifteen years since that cassete was played.
She switched the tape off and placed it back into the box..probably for another fifteen years..