Love It Do: Abandoned Beatles ashram in Rishikesh will be turned into a museum soon
The
Beatles came together at the Rishikesh ashram in the spring of '68. In a
dilapidated state today, the ashram will soon be turned into a museum
for fans.It’s just another afternoon in the holy town of Rishikesh in
Uttarakhand.
Tourists jostle on the almost swinging Ram Jhula – one of
the two famous suspension bridges across the cascading Ganga. Many stop
for photo ops on the narrow pedestrian bridge, 20-somethings take
selfies, motorcyclists honk for way, a couple of cows moo.
Once
everybody has crossed over, they automatically set off in one direction:
towards the many ashrams and temples along the ghaat. We, however, ask
around for one particular ashram off the tourist trail.
A dusty,
deserted lane leads us to the dry rocky bed of a mountain stream. We
walk across it, and around a bend, find what we’re looking for. The
rusted main gate is locked from the inside, its arch taken over by wild
creepers.
Vipul Saini, the gatekeeper, gets up lazily from his
charpai when we approach and asks matter-of-factly, “Where from?”
“Delhi.” “Give me your ID cards and go in. You have half an hour only.
The ashram shuts at 5pm. And don’t get lost!”
With that warning
we set off to explore what remains of what was once the ashram where
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr –
collectively known as the legendary English rock band The Beatles – had
stayed, learnt meditation and written 48 songs in the spring of ’68.
Rishikesh in Uttarakhand is
known for its many ashrams, ghats and scores of temples. People from all
over India come here to pay their respects to the many gods and to the
holy river Ganga. But for music fans from all over the world, visiting
Rishikesh is a pilgrimage of a different kind. For in the spring of
1968, four legendary musicians made their way here to live in one of the
earliest ashrams. They were none other than the beloved English rock
band, the Beatles.
Today, the ashram lies abandoned...
In the Swinging Sixties, Rishikesh was an obscure
little place, quite unknown to most of the world outside. Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation or TM technique
that was rapidly becoming a worldwide movement, had built an ashram
here, in 1961, on a wooded hillock along the bank of the Ganga.
He
had also started to gather a devoted string of celebrity followers on
his many world tours to teach TM. During one such tour in London, in
August of 1967, seated amongst the Maharishi’s audience were the four
Beatles. They had just released their eighth studio album Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Harrison had already made a voyage to
India to learn the sitar and had become interested in Indian culture and
mysticism. And the Beatles were all still going strong on LSD to “tap
into the cosmic subconscious, or eternity, or whatever,” as a 2008
New York Times article
puts it. The piece adds: “The maharishi’s transcendental meditation
techniques promised to get them there without the chemicals.”
And
so in February 1968, brimming with that expectation, the Beatles, along
with their wives and girlfriends, arrived in Rishikesh for a three
month-long course on TM.
As soon as we start climbing the many
steps from the main gate towards the heart of the ashram, a swarm of
tiny insects starts buzzing over our heads. Some of the stairs, we
notice, are covered by big mounds of poop. “Wild elephants,” Saini says
from behind us. He has followed us inside, “I’ll show you around,” he
offers and says, “Many wild animals come in. Deer, monkeys, snakes,
elephants. Tigers too!”
There
are 84 meditation caves at the ashram which were meant for the
residents to practise meditation in. Like the rest of the ashram,
they’ve been overrun by the jungle now. (Photo: Saumya Khandelwal)
The
ashram, known amongst fans as the ‘Beatles ashram’, and amongst the
locals as ‘Mahesh Yogi’s ashram’, is part of the Rajaji National Park
that extends from Haridwar to Dehradun and beyond.
“In 1961, the
Maharishi had got 15 acres of land for the ashram on a lease of 20
years,” says Dehradun-based journalist Raju Gusain who has done
extensive research on the ashram and its Beatles connection. “When the
lease expired in 1981, the ashram kept running for two more decades
without a new lease. Then in 2000, a Supreme Court ruling ordered all
staff members to vacate the premises, and in 2003, the ashram was
formally shut forever.”
Ever since, weeds have sprouted across
the paths, trees have grown wildly from inside many of the buildings,
creepers have sneakily crawled up the walls of others, and the forest
has slowly, determinedly reclaimed the ashram as its own. Although, not
all of it.
The 84 meditation caves, which were built for
residents to live simply within their rounded walls and meditate
undisturbed, still stand strong. A multistoried building that might have
once housed living quarters, now stands covered in dust and leaves, its
doors broken off the hinges, wind rustling through its empty corridors.
Today, the Beatles Cathedral Gallery features vibrant pop art in a riot of colour. (Photo: Saumya Khandelwal)
A
high-roofed building lies partially hidden by tall shrubs towards the
rear end of the property. It had once served as a yoga hall, Saini tells
us, but is now known as the Beatles Cathedral Gallery, as the graffiti
on the doorway announces.
Inside, the walls are a riot of
colour. A big graffiti saying ‘100% Love Guaranteed’ is flanked by the
Beatles on one side and various spiritual gurus on the other. Vibrant
pop art covers other walls of the hall – some made with much effort by
Beatles fans, and others, like names of lovers within hearts, scribbled
hastily by locals.
Pan Trinity Das, a Canadian artist and the
brain behind the gallery, tells us, “I first went to the Beatles ashram
in 2012 when a musician friend insisted that we pay tribute to the band
there. I had a vision then of what the space could look like and spent
two weeks finishing the gallery with the help of all those who would
accept a paintbrush. I also curated the space, organising walls for
other international artists to come paint on.”
Canadian
artist Pan Trinity Das started the Beatles Cathedral Gallery at one of
the yoga halls in the ashram as a collaborative space for various
artists. (Photo courtesy: Pan Trinity Das)
The
Beatles gallery now forms one of the major attractions for fans
visiting the ashram. Paul Saltzman was just 23 when he came to India
from Canada in 1968 to work as a sound engineer on a documentary film.
Soon after, he received a letter from his girlfriend saying, “Dear Paul,
I’ve moved in with Henry…”.
He was left devastated. “Someone
said, ‘Why don’t you try meditation for the heartbreak,’ and so I took a
train to Rishikesh and arrived at the ashram,” he says. “I hadn’t made
arrangements and didn’t even know the Beatles were there. I slept in a
tent near the front gate for eight days before I was allowed in.
I
learnt meditation in five minutes and within 30 minutes the agony of my
heartbreak was gone.” And so he spent the next week “hanging out with
the famous folks there,” – the Beatles and their spouses, actress Mia
Farrow and her sister Prudence, the Scottish singer Donovan, Mike Love
of The Beach Boys and several others.
Saltzman would later go on
to become a two-time Emmy Award-winning film and TV producer-director
with more than 300 films to his credit. “Meditation and my conversations
with John and George and the others were life- changing,” he says.
“They were totally down-to-earth, humorous and playful. They had no star
egos. It was also the most creative capsule of time during their
illustrious career: they wrote 48 songs in just under seven weeks!”
These songs would later appear on their
White Album (1968) and
Abbey Road (1969). Some like
Ob-La-Di and
Back in the USSR had no India connect. Others like
Mother Nature’s Son were inspired by the natural beauty of the mountains in Rishikesh.
Dear Prudence was written by Lennon to “lure Prudence Farrow out of meditation overload,” according to the book,
100 Best Beatles Songs: A Passionate Fan’s Guide.
Lennon later told
Playboy,
“She’d been trying to reach God quicker than anybody else. That was the
competition in Maharishi’s camp: who was going to get cosmic first.
What I didn’t know was I was
already cosmic.”
Raju
Gusain says that the Beatles’ visit put Rishikesh on the world map. He
says that the Fab Four could also perhaps be indirectly credited with
the idea behind the rafting scene in Rishikesh.
“There was a man
called Avnish Kohli who was with the Beatles when they were crossing
the Ganga by boat one day. It was then that he heard them talk about
rafting and the possibility of doing it in the Ganga.” According to
Gusain, Kohli later established the first rafting camp in Rishikesh.
But
all didn’t end well for the Beatles at the ashram. Ringo Starr left
after the first week as his stomach couldn’t cope with the spicy food.
Three weeks later, McCartney followed, while Lennon and Harrison
returned home another two weeks after that, following rumours that the
Maharishi had made sexual advances on one of the women in the ashram.
George
Harrison celebrates his 25th birthday at Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in
Rishikesh along with the other Beatles. The cake for the party had been
delivered from Dehradun. (Photo: Getty Images)
Their
displeasure with the Maharishi would soon find its way into a sarcastic
song which went, “Maharishi, what have you done? You’ve made a fool of
everyone.” But according to the 2008
New York Times article,
“it wasn’t released that way. In the end, the other Beatles,
particularly Harrison, argued that whatever disagreements they had with
the maharishi, his work demanded respect, and it was unfair (and perhaps
libellous) to be so blunt.”
The song’s title, and the references to the Maharishi in its lyrics, were henceforth changed to what we now know as
Sexy Sadie.
As we’re about to leave the ashram, two foreign tourists ask gatekeeper
Saini if they can enter. “We’re leaving tomorrow and we really want to
see the ashram once,” says Stefan from Germany.
“We got to know
about Rishikesh and the ashram from a book on the Beatles. We’re both
big fans, you know,” says Cris from Philippines. “It’s like a pilgrimage
for us to visit this ashram.” Moved by their pleas, Saini duly keeps
their ID cards and lets them in.
Later, we make our way through
the twisted bylanes of the town centre to “The 60’s Cafe”. Its owner
Keith Dympep moved to Rishikesh from Shillong a few years ago and
started the café with a friend as a tribute to the glorious era of music
that was the ’60s, and more specifically to the Beatles.
“Not
many of the locals remember or know of the Beatles or their visit here,”
he says. “But so many tourists from abroad visit Rishikesh just for the
legendary band. This café is our little effort to revive that
connection. Fans now lovingly call it the ‘Beatles Cafe’.”
Fans take photos next to graffiti at the ashram as it exists today. (Photo: Saumya Khandelwal)
It
is to recognise this attraction that Rishikesh and the ashram – even in
its dilapidated, crumbling state – holds over legions of Beatles fans
from all across the world that officials of the Rajaji National Park are
finally planning to turn the ashram into a museum.
Rajender
Nautiyal, range officer of Gohari Range of the Park, and one of the
first to propose the idea, says, “The trend of foreigners coming to
Rishikesh started with the Beatles in ’68. So the influence that the
band had on the town shouldn’t be overlooked.”
He says that the
initial plan is to remove the weeds from the paths, clean the floors of
the buildings and erase some of the obscene graffiti from the walls. “We
don’t plan to renovate any of the buildings as of now, since the
property is inside a National Park and we don’t want to promote too much
tourism.”
The idea, he says, is to legalise entry for the
die-hard fans who otherwise trespass into the ashram through gaps in the
boundary walls when denied entry at the gate. “We will keep all the
other beautiful graffiti as it is, provide maps and drinking water
facilities. We will also make two small museums inside one of these
buildings – one dedicated to the Beatles of course, and one for the
diversity of birds, animals, plants and herbs you find in the area.”
“I
have never heard any song by the Beatles. I only listen to old Hindi
songs,” Nautiyal says, laughing. “But I understand the following they
have all over the world. My children too listen to their music.”
It
is, thus, only fair to give all fans a chance to pay homage to the band
they love, at an ashram where they once lived, in a mystical land like
Rishikesh. After all, we can’t just
Let It Be.
From the writer's diary
I remember the first time I listened to
Let It Be.
I had heard it a zillion times before, but this was the first time I
really listened. I had just gotten my heart broken for the first time,
you see, and almost instinctively I had turned to The Beatles for
comfort, for the assurance that “there will be an answer, let it be.”
That was a half and one decade ago, but even now I associate most of my loves and heartbreaks with The Beatles.
A
few weeks ago, I visited Rishikesh for this cover story (on the ashram
The Beatles had visited in the spring of ’68, where they had written
many, many songs).
Etched on the walls of the ashram were the
titles of the songs I had sung on sad, lonely nights and those I had
hummed when my heart was aflutter with new love. And so, on my very
first visit, I was overcome by a sense of belonging.
Later, our
photojournalist Saumya Khandelwal and I sat at the Beatles Café in the
town centre, sipping organic drinks and looking out at the Ganga flowing
below.
The calm of the place was punctuated by the tolling of
prayer bells from the temples nearby. For me though, singing along with
The Beatles as their songs played in the café was my way of pilgrimage.
A
weighing scale that can tell your weight, your fat percentage, BMI and a
whole lot more, and connect to your app, to mesh all your fitness
activity with your weight goals. But a connected weighing scale costs a
whole lot more than your normal bathroom scale. 
Brace yourself
for this one. If Fitbit leads the world, then who is number two? None
other than our Chinese iPhone ‘giant killer’ Xiaomi. Having crossed
shipments of a million Mi bands worldwide and still going strong, this
is a player on the move. The Mi band has price on its side but the band
has no screen to display your numbers, no heart-rate tracking and the
ecosystem is just its own app. 
If there is a number
one and number two in the world, then there must also be a number three.
That’s Garmin which rules the roost with Vivofit and Vivosmart. The
Vivofit has an exceptional battery life of more than a year while the
Vivosmart is a cross between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. Vivo
entered India almost a year ago and is pulling in some big numbers. 
.
