Interview
“In those days, you got cheap cassettes, you got dear cassettes, and the cheap ones they stretched. So when they were playing it, they used to get caught in the wheels, in the spindles. And by the time you pulled them out, there was a whole load of reel, which was all twisted and mangled. So, you’d have to cut, snip it, join it together. And then by that time, you’d missed some of the conversation, yeah, so that’s happened.”
Interview
“My mum was always crying. She would listen to the tape and tears would just fall. She was always crying. She never listened to a tape with peace. For the entire length of the tape, she’d cry. And when she needed to send a tape, she’d cry all the way through the recording. Always! I was a bit careless, I was very excited - Great a tape has arrived! Laughter, chatter, whatever was on it, including the serious messages from dad which about their families, their in-laws, and the children - different types of messages. Sometimes it’d be about problems, someone had become ill and it’d be reported, or if someone had good news too. Somebody may have gone abroad to away, or someone needed money - these are the kinds of messages that were included on the tapes. But my mother, she was always crying. When we all listened to the tapes we’d be laughing sometimes but she would always be crying because she would be hearing the voices of her daughters. That’s was the difference. A very emotional time. Emotional for her - Laughter and excitement for us.”
Interview
“It was a compact cassette, a self-contained compact cassette, which was fairly common at that time, and originally it was only mono and we would have like 60-minute and then of course we started getting double-sided tapes, you know, 90 minute tapes, and you even had 120 minutes, but the standard length was 60 minute tapes. The machine itself was about that size, it was quite bulky. It had like two control knobs, one for tone, one for volume. And it was like a flip top, you know, and it had an additional mic you plug in, and basically that’s what it did. It was a Phillips make, it was made by Phillips, I remember that. And it used four C type batteries, you know those big chunky batteries, yeah four of them - it was quite bulky. The machine was basically mum’s, so we had to use it with her permission and only her permission.”
Interview
“I recorded a tape for my parents once and they sent back a reply the following week. I didn’t expect it to arrive so soon. The postman came and knocked on the door but I wasn't home. He gave it to my neighbour explaining it was a small parcel to be handed to me on my return. They were apnay [South-Asian] and they handed it over to me when I got back. When I saw the parcel, I knew it was a tape and I was so happy because I knew it would be from my mum and dad. I listened to the tape and when my husband came back from work, he listened to it too.”
Cassette
“How are you, my brother? How is your health? You must be thinking that I didn’t greet you, and I started talking about myself at first. I greeted you with everyone else. I answered all of your letters that I got. You haven’t sent any letters for some time now. We got a cassette from you and replied to it when Aunt recorded it. Sister Nasreen, how are you? How is the elder sister and maternal aunt? How are you feeling? Is your eyesight okay now? May God grant you good health. Please write to me soon. You used to write to us before, and we regularly replied. But it’s been so long since you wrote to us. Is everything else all right? Is everything else okay? Everything is good here. Pay my greetings to everyone there.”
Interview
“We used to use a cassette, which we also referred to as a ‘reel’ in Pothwari, to communicate. We used to record and send messages on it and we used to get a response from our family members in Pakistan after one to two months. We used to be so happy knowing someone’s voice had arrived. There was no way to communicate properly then because we couldn’t meet each other in person, so this was a way, and we’d listen to each other voices and become happy. Whenever there was a happy occasion we’d talk about it - an engagement or a wedding, or if there was a death we’d console each other. That’s what we used to record.”
Interview
"I listened to it once or twice but then I would end up crying, my heart wouldn't allow it because my mum had passed away. I couldn’t bear to listen to the cassette again because it would make my heart sink by thinking about her voice. Ive had the tape for many years now, and it been around 40 years since she passed away but I've not listened to it since."
Cassette
Assia and Shavana are sisters. Shavana and her mum were preparing for a visit to Pakistan and this is a recording by Assia so that Shavana (in the background) could listen back to her voice if she felt lonely whilst away.
Assia: Assalamo Alaikum [Greetings] Shavana - How is it going? Hope you're having a good time. Hope the flies aren’t bugging you too much! Hope mum’s not been ignoring you!
Shavana: No
Assia: And hope you do all the sightseeing you want, and hope you do all the writing that you want. And take lots of photos.
Shavana: Yeah I will
Assia: Write to me too
Shavana: I will!
Assia: I’ll write to you too
Shavana: I expect loads of letters from you as well!
Assia: Yeah you will, you will. Just have a great time
Shavana: OK
Assia: Love you
Shavana: Love you too!
Interview
"Initially I was just excited and glad to hear the voices, but when I’d keep listening it’s very emotional then it gets a bit depressing. Maybe a bit depressed. It’s not always like a happy feeling. You’d be glad to hear them but at the same time you’re getting a bit loneliness or depressed you know.”
Interview
“My husband’s parents used to store the cassettes in a cupboard. They kept their son’s cassettes there. Sometimes, when my mother-in-law was sad and missed her son, she would take out a cassette and listen to it because there was no other way of hearing a voice then - only through a tape.”