Brother Siddhartha who is holding the headphones tells the story.
This was taken during the 2009 trip to Kodaikanal with Bhagwan.
Swami, on one of the days, had a 'fancy' distribution of goodies. The box was brought and what came out were iPods. He handed out one to each of us.
He then watched us hold the box, and asked one of the students to open it. The unboxing was done, and Swami asked the boy to use the 'walkman' (as He had been informed).
The boy tried to explain that it needs charging, and then syncing with iTunes where one adds the songs.
Clearly unimpressed by the procedure (Could surmise that Swami lean towards Android in the OS debate?) Swami did not continue the conversation.
A few of us felt bad, that we could not show the iPod in operation.
That evening I realised that my laptop (that I had carried to be a dump for all digi cameras shooting) had iTunes! And in it was one solitary convocation drama song- Bhagwan *2 sung by the one and only Ravi Kumar sir.
Quickly I took my iPod, synced it with the library and charged it. I then went around scouting for a headphones 🎧 that weren't in-ear like the one that came in the box.
Providence was on our side, and Sai Shravanam (the son of Ramani sir, former TN State President) was in possession of one as he was in-charge of the mic system in the bhajan hall. He gladly lent it to us and we planned to play the song for Bhagwan the next morning.
With much strategy in place, we waited for a chance the next day. Bhagwan was in one of His chatty moods and began making conversation.
At an opportune moment, brother Omprasad (a face likely to impress) and I (chief of operations) asked Swami if we could show Him the iPod.
He immediately agreed.
The original idea was to keep the 🎧 inverted, and take it close to His ears without disturbing His crown of hair. As I approached with that intent, He asked me to put it on as it is usually worn. I had the opportunity to place it for Him, even as Omprasad played the song. Swami heard a few lines and was happy (of course that goes without saying, that voice has been doing that for decades).
He then said He had last used a Walkman during His kashmir trip. (can anyone recall details of that?)
The rest of the morning, then went with Swami recalling the Kashmir trip, the Abdullah family and from there to His trip to Africa.
(The headphones has pride of place in Shravanam's studio and the iPod that was used for the occasion, remains so with that solitary song)
