Taming Boseji

Our old friend Mr.Bose has been quite well-behaved of late. It still has some quirks. It absolutely refuses to play, for example, Rashid Khan's Kabir bhajans. Any Kabir experts here, while I digress? Remember the doha,
'Bada hua to kya hua, jaise ped khajoor,
Panthi ko chhaya nahin, phal laage ati door.'

Well, Rashid Bhai has changed the 'panthi' ( traveller) to panchhi(bird), which makes no sense at all. Perhaps that's why Boseji considers this recording to be a travesty of Sant Kabir's great poetry.
Jagjit Singh has done even better- he also sings panchhi, while the sleeve notes of his CD very clearly say 'panthi'. Perhaps that's why Boseji is willing to play him!!!

By mid-November last year Boseji had started acting up again. Practically all discs were reading "Disc Error". Nothing but nothing was playable. I was planning to take it to the service centre, but kept postponing the trip. I was, however, sufficiently annoyed with all this non-cooperation and so wrapped up Boseji in an old tablecloth and kept it in a corner of the guest room. My mother gave me her little Philips CD player, which , though not a patch on Boseji in terms of sound quality, at least played all CDs. Not that we had much time for music after that- my mother had her fall, and our lives changed irrevocably.
In March I finally thought of taking Boseji for some TLC at the service centre. Since it is no longer under guarantee, I knew that it would be a relatively expensive affair, so I thought I'd just check it out once more, before taking it for servicing. After such a long holiday, Boseji actually did play, so I packed up little Mr. Philips and put it away. The minute I did that, Boseji went all prima donnish again. So for a few weeks I had Boseji and Philips fighting for space on top of the drawers. I realised that Boseji needs to perceive the presence of Philips to behave!
As of now, Boseji has the place of honour on top of the drawer, while the threatening, deterrent Philips is on a stool just below. Accessible and visible. Let's see how long this arrangement keeps Boseji behaving!

Boseji, however much I may mock you, I truly appreciate your amazing voice. Keep singing and playing for us, my friend!