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After this ceremony the students were sent to their classes. They sat on the floor of small rooms and recited from texts for their teachers.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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The village was just waking up. Dogs were rummaging through trash on the unpaved street.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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A man in shorts was washing himself outside his house. The women of the house covered their heads from us.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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A man was sitting on the porch and shaving. A boy in a uniform of pants and shirt was walking to school.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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A woman was filling up her pots with water from a hose that jutted out at the curbside.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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At the adjacent home a woman was making a fire to prepare breakfast.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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His purposefulness contrasted with the looks on three girls who seemed in no hurry. They were wrapped in a traditional garb against the morning cold.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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We saw observation cameras installed on the trees in the park to keep track of the tigers and other animals.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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A separate plain wall in aquamarine supplied a bright color. In front of it, a woman in a multicolor dress of saffron, purple, and green greeted us with her toothy smile.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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The walls of the ticket kiosk at the entrance to the Ranthambhore National Park displayed fresco paintings by some local villagers. In white on a salmon background, they depicted what this land meant to them: birds, deer, tiger, crocodile, and plants.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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I went to have the villagers’ breakfast of unleavened flatbread (roti) made from millet flour, being prepared on a hot iron plate which was on a wood fire set on the floor.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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.. two blind musicians played the noubat and ektar (a one-string instrument).

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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At dawn the next morning, I was awakened by the same kind of music, this time coming from loud speakers of a radio.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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That night in the camp we retired around ten. From my tent.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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In another central Indian village, Alipur, we had heard another devotional song about the absence of an avatar of Vishnu, Krishna.

Photo essay: Folklore in India’s villages

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