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SITAR PLAYER RAVI SHANKAR died on 11 December 2012 at the age of 92. In this photograph, Shankar performs in the rain at the Woodstock festival on August 15, 1969, with Alla Rakha on the tabla and Maya Kulkarni on the tanpura. Looking back at the experience, he would write in his autobiography Raga Mala, edited by George Harrison: “I performed with Alla Rakha accompanying me on the tabla, in front of an audience of half a million—an ocean of people. It was drizzling and very cold, but they were so happy in the mud; they were all stoned, of course, but they were enjoying it. It reminded me of the water buffaloes you see in India, submerged in the mud.”
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