Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi also inaugurated a museum of musical instruments at EZCC. Named Vadya Vithika, the museum focuses on tribal instruments, many of which are endangered.

“Whenever we held a tribal musical programme over the past two years, we asked the musicians to make an instrument for us before leaving. That is how we built our collection. We gathered information about the instruments directly from the players too,” said Om Prakash Bharti, director of EZCC and curator and designer of the museum. Incidentally the museum has come up in what used to be the garage of the complex. 

There are over 450 instruments in the collection although 265 are on display now. “The instruments are divided into four sections — avanaddha (percussion) showcases madal, dhak, khol and pakhwaj of various shapes. Tata (string) instruments begin with single-stringed cousins of the ektara  and culminate in Kashmir’s santoor and rabab, which use more than 100 strings,” said Sumedha Sengupta, project assistant, EZCC. 

Sushira (wind instruments) include flutes, horns and trumpets double the height of the player and the last group —ghana — comprises solid instruments like cymbals and massive ghungroos worn around the waist. The governor himself played a dhamsa from Jhadkhand at the opening. 

Visitors were wide-eyed and full of questions. “Is this played by blowing on it?"”“Are these deer horns jutting out of this drum?” “How does one reach the top of that tall trumpet?” The most common question however was “How does this instrument sound?” Sengupta said that they would soon have booklets in the museum with all relevant information. “A video would also be played with corresponding music,” she said.