"(N.R. Narayana) Murthy, (S.D.) Shibulal and I are constantly trying to get ahead of each other in (collecting and listening to) music," says Gopalakrishnan, who bought a 60 GB iPod a year ago. His choice of music: everything from rock to Carnatic music. His preferred mode of relaxation: sitting by the pool at Infosys' 80-acre campus in Bangalore's Electronics City and listening to his favourite Malayalam numbers. "My music collection is a throwback to the 70s and 80s and I tend to listen to it anytime I want to relax or when I am driving or travelling," says Gopalakrishnan, who still drives himself to work. "I also use my iPod for work, since it can serve as a back-up device and stores podcasts too," he adds.

-Rahul Sachitanand

"The iPod is the best choice for a music buff like me; it gives me hours of portable listening pleasure everyday," says Chandrasekaran, adding that his house resembles a mini iPod store. "It is with me from the moment I sit down on my garden swing every morning with my first cup of coffee and my newspapers. Music is a part of my fitness sessions at the gym, my drive to the office and back and also on the long, tiring flights," he adds. His choice of music: Carnatic music, and Tamil and Hindi film songs.

-Nitya Varadarajan

California dreaming is the call tune on Colvyn Harris' phone. This self-confessed "gadget freak" is on his iPod when he is working out, unless, of course, there is music playing at the gym. "The iPod is a part of my entertainment and I can programme the music any way I want, which is fabulous," he exclaims. Harris says the repertoire on his iPod ranges from soft rock to rock to pop. Harris is also a heavy user of the iTrip. When he is entertaining people at home, he relies on his iPod to dish out the best music. "I look at the iPod as a great generation bridge," he says.

-Krishna Gopalan

He has been using his iPod for the last two-and-a-half years. He received it as a gift on a "family occasion", but he was initially reluctant to use that. "I had some ethical reservations about listening to music on the iPod," he says (he runs a music company, Saregama, formerly HMV India). Eventually, however, he got hooked "for the sheer convenience of having my own music library". What does he like most about his toy? "I can listen to songs of my choice whenever and wherever I like, he says.

-Ritwik Mukherjee

"I use an ITRIP in my car; this allows me, rather than my driver, to control the settings," he says. Jain also listens to management books being read out on his iPod and uses it to record and replay voice memos at work. "I got hooked two years ago to the 'addictive' simplicity of its design, which allows for indexing and random sequencing of songs," he says. On his playlist are 1,200 songs that revolve around seasons and some old dancing songs.

-Nitya Varadarajan

Parameswaran picked up his iPod two years ago on an official trip to Chicago. He listens to Carnatic music with the same kind of passion as he does The Doors. His favourites: old Tamil songs, Carnatic music, jazz, pop and rock. "I'm on the iPod when I feel up to it. And yes, there are times when I cool off at work with it," he says.

-Krishna Gopalan

He received an iPod mini as a gift from his daughter, and it changed the way he listened to music forever. "I carry some 1,500 old Bengali and Hindi songs on my iPod," says Sen Gupta. His favourites: songs by Kishore Kumar, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhonsle, Manna Dey and Hemant Kumar. Sen Gupta uses the iTrip, an attachment that allows him to beam music from his iPod to a tuner. At home, he hooks his iPod to Bose speakers for optimum satisfation.

-E. Kumar Sharma