Return to India, Part 19: The wedding band, in the visual style of Sgt. Pepper's (10 image slide show)

I have uploaded and placed the photos from Sujitha and Manojs wedding in a draft post, but right now I am just too tired to write the text. See, I am a late night person but I had to get up very early this morning to drive Margie to Anchorage so she could spend the rest of the week babysitting rascals while I continue to live like a bachelor. When I have to get up early, I don't sleep. Worse yet, I tried to take a nap this afternoon, but it didn't work.

So, instead, I am posting this 10 image slide show of the wedding band. The instant I saw them dressed in their uniforms, I thought of the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Don't forget - India was big in the Beatles' life at that time and four of the many people pictured around them in the cover are Indians. I am pretty sure they patterned their own outfits after a band very much like this one.

I loved this band - they had soul, they had character - and their music, Wow! Strong! Energetic! Nothing like the Beatles at all; nothing like anything I have heard in the US - or anywhere but here. It is a sound unto itself - an all Indian sound. I wish I could spend a month with them, hang out with them, see what their lives are like - shoot a full-blown photo essay. I would love to do that. Anyway, to see the slideshow, click either on the photo or right here. You will see them in action in the wedding post, too.

I will write the text early Tuesday - or least right after I have my breakfast and coffee and come to. Actually, it probably won't be that early.

Series index:

India series, part 1: With a little help from the Indian Air Force, I begin my India series without actually beginning it
Return to India, Part 2: Pain beneath the fan, a sprawling tree, monkey on a string; those I would soon join on a train ride; the garland
Return to India, Part 3: My Facebook friend, Ramz, her mischievous brother, her nationally recognized achiever mom, her dad at the wheel
India series, Part 4: When you overtake an elephant on the highway, be sure to pass on the right; birthday remembrance; In Wasilla, pass "oversize" on the left
Return to India, Part 5: I wander the cold, empty, streets of Bangalore
Return to India, Part 6: A cow, blessed and safe; Suji takes me to lunch, then goes out with Bhanu to do some wedding shopping
Return to India, Part 7-A: A three-snack outing as mother and daughter shop for Suji's wedding
Return to India, Part 7-B: On the painted holiday of the final full moon of winter, Sujitha and Kruthika go back to get a necklace
A spacer only - the Buddha and the glamour poster ad
Return to India, Part 8: henna, to highlight her beauty and deepen the love between bride and groom; a moment on the way to the train
Return to India, Part 9: A prayer and a blessing for Suji; we head for the train; three calls to Manu
Time for another spacer - the green man who showed up at the railroad station
Return to India, Part 10: The train to Pune, part 2: Sujitha by the window as a thin thread of her India flows by
Return to India, Part 11: On the train, part 3: Ganesh Ravi - Photographer: how we discovered his hidden talent
Return to India, Part 12: On the train, part 4: After dark
Return to India, Part 13: train ride, part 5: we click and clatter into Pune, take a perilous walk and step into a world beyond imagination
Return to India, Part 14: The groom his wedding suit; me in mine
Return to India, Part 15: A function to mark the final night Sujitha would spend with her family before the wedding
Return to India, Part 16: Inside the Biradar house: portrait of an elder woman - portrait of a young girl
Return to India, Part 17: We dine in the home of the groom's parents, then join in the Puja of Kalasha
Return to India, Part 18: Slideshow: Sujitha and Manoj at the wedding hall - Engagement and Haldi Night
Return to India, Part 19: The wedding band, in the visual style of Sgt. Pepper's (10 image slide show)
Return to India, Part 20: The groom rides a white horse to the temple, there is dancing in the street; Sujitha and Manoj are wed
Return to India, Part 21 - Benediction: Sujitha takes me to the sacred waters; fish dine - a crow flies