After that evening's wonderful concert, so many of our sisters and brothers were thanking us. When we walked back with the esraj, Dhanu was so enthusiastic! He said that finally after 27 years of playing, Sri Chinmoy got an instrument of the high quality he deserves. It sounded just the way it should sound, and it was the best esraj ever, Dhanu told us.
After all this work and the many up and downs, the uplifting concert, Guru's satisfaction and the many nice comments, we finally reached the seventh heaven of delight. The next day all the pressure was gone and we started the day as new born children. Relaxed and happy, we played some sports in the afternoon while we left the esraj in the function room. When we came back, Sri Chinmoy was just about to play it. We were almost too late and felt a little bit sorry about it.
Guru started to play, but what was this? The sound had changed! He was no longer satisfied, and the two boys dropped from heaven back to earth. "What have you changed?" Sri Chinmoy asked us. The sound had definitely changed for the worse, but we had not changed anything! What could we do? Again we worked for 3 days on the instrument.
The day arrived when Sri Chinmoy would give a public concert. In the morning he asked for the esraj so that he could practice. Then in the evening he gave a very nice concert. He played the "Chinmoy Veena" which was built by Sumadhur, an esraj which Prarthi bought for him, and for the first time in a public concert, the German esraj we had built. He played very powerfully and dynamically. We did not know if he was now completely satisfied or not; but this time Sri Chinmoy did not return the esraj to our care. He wanted to have it in his room so that he could play it every day.
Once when we took prasad, Sri Chinmoy said, "Your instrument is so excellent, so excellent. Every day in the morning I practice on it." Since then he has thanked us so many times for the esraj. Even many months later, when Sri Chinmoy was calling the Augsburg Centre to honor Projjwal's Birthday, he told us how much he likes the instrument and that the sound is so sweet and melodious.
