50 years of Beatles-fame zebra crossing pic

London: Hundreds of people gathered at the world's most famous zebra crossing on Thursday to mark the 50th anniversary of the day the Beatles were photographed on it, creating one of the best-known album covers in music history and an image imitated by countless fans since. The picture of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr striding over the pedestrian crossing on Abbey Road was taken outside the EMI Recording Studios where they made the 1969 album of the same name. Reuters

Paintings to showcase Ramayana at NY museum

New York: Starting Saturday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art here will display a selection of 30 paintings depicting Ramayana, painted during 17-19th century for the Rajput and Pahari courts of north India. The year-long show titled "Sita and Rama: The Ramayana in Indian Painting" will narrate the heroic and adventurous tale of Ram's rescue of his wife. These paintings and textiles capture court artists' collective visual imagination and efforts to depict the 2,500-year-old Sanskrit epic Ramayana, which consists of over 24,000 verses. IANS

A first: Indian classical music book in Mandarin

Beijing: In a first of its kind initiative, an encyclopedia of Indian classical music in Chinese language Mandarin was unveiled here on Wednesday. "The Musical Culture of India" traces back the origins of various Indian music forms. The author is Chinese musician and scholar Prof Chen Ziming, who was closely associated with sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar and Samson. The book has 13 chapters of content, including on cultural background, types of Indian music, ragas, talas and instruments. PTI