In the marketplace of Orccha, a small township in central India, villagers perform a traditional song while chanting a mantra. A friendly musician graciously invites the BRC founder to play the ektara. This East Indian instrument is a single string Hindu banjo. It has a gourd pot and a bamboo stick neck. The ektara is a rhythm instrument used to accompany folk songs in Punjab, Bengal, and Rajastham where this photo was taken. Click photos to enlarge for details.
Later, at the entrance of the Taj Mahal, a national landmark tightly patrolled by military forces, a security guard confiscated a copy of the Banjo NewsLetter that was poking out of the BRC founder`s coat pocket (I am not making this up). Inside the walled grounds of the spectacular monument, a wintry fog enveloped the Taj Mahal. The BRC founder, now sans his BNL, is pictured with his spouse, as they stand a few steps from a soldier with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder.
At departure from the UNESCO World Heritage site, the BRC founder recovered his contraband NewsLetter when a street wise local tour guide assistant retrieved the confiscated periodical from a souvenir shop just outside the main gate and returned the wayward Banjo NewsLetter to its surprised owner.
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1 Comment
Congratulations on hitting over 300,000 page views on your site! I clicked on all the images of this post to view the detail larger. Love the banjo newsletter shot with the two women in saris on your left, very colorful….the saris and the newsletter:)
Also appreciated the armed guard to your right photo-blemishing your Taj Mahal shot.
Here’s to the next 300,000!
Keep on pickin’ and grinnin’
Lisa