Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Beatles' hideaway in India comes together, 50 years on

FIFTY years after the Beatles came to India, the bungalows where the Fab Four lived, the post office where John Lennon sent Yoko Ono postcards and the giggling guru's house are all ruins.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram, where the world's most famous group sought refuge and spirituality in 1968 and wrote much of their seminal "White Album", fell into disuse in the early 2000s.


But thanks to the efforts of a group of locals, the site has been reclaimed from the jungle and tourists now roam where tigers and snakes were until recently the most common day trippers.

"Before, people used to sneak in, which could be dangerous," said local journalist Raju Gusain, instrumental in rescuing the area overlooking Rishikesh in northern India.

"There used to be leopard paw marks and elephant dung," he told a news source on a tour of the site. "Now we have erected a fence to stop animals getting in from the tiger reserve next door."

By 1968, following the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein the year before, fissures were beginning to show between John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

But the group found a new mentor: the magnetic Maharishi who promised them happiness and enlightenment without drugs, through transcendental meditation.

The bushy-bearded sage persuaded them to travel to his spiritual retreat in Rishikesh, and so in February 1968 they fetched up with their partners, not knowing quite what to expect.

A world away from "Swinging London", the band appeared to reconnect, penning almost 50 new songs.

Others there included fellow musicians Donovan and Beach Boy Mike Love, actress Mia Farrow and her reclusive sister Prudence, inspiration for Lennon's song "Dear Prudence".

The local wildlife - although the song is also supposedly about heroin or Yoko Ono - inspired "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" as well as "Blackbird".

McCartney wrote "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" after seeing monkeys openly copulating, while Love's presence helped spark "Back in the USSR", a pastiche of the Beach Boys' "California Girls".

The band - with the exception of Starr, who brought a supply of baked beans due to his sensitive stomach and left after 10 days - enjoyed the break and the meditation too.

"I felt like I actually was a feather floating over a hot-air pipe," McCartney recalled later of one session. "And I reported that to Maharishi, and he giggled: 'Yes, this is good!'"

One local old enough to remember is Ajit Singh, the owner of a music shop - still open - in the nearby town of Dehradun, who fixed Lennon's guitar and performed at Harrison's 25th birthday.

Turbaned, thin and with a croaky voice, the 86-year-old Singh recalls with twinkling eyes the band wandering into the store one day, pursued by a crowd outside, and him "inviting them home for tea".

"They were very polite with me, they were not haughty or something," he told a news source in his shop. "I always said to people that they were good people."

After a while though, relations worsened between the Beatles and the Maharishi, the atmosphere soured by the yogi's rumoured sexual advances and his evident desire to make money from his famous new pupils.

McCartney left after five weeks and Harrison and Lennon after two months. Asked the reason by the yogi, Lennon is reputed to have told the guru, "If you're so cosmic you'll know why."

But still, the Beatles helped put Rishikesh on the map for Westerners, and popularised meditation and Eastern spirituality. The Maharishi even made the cover of Time magazine in 1975.

His ashram initially thrived but then went into decline and was abandoned in 2001. Nature slowly reclaimed the site, while parts of the buildings were removed and people sneaked in and left graffiti.

But in 2016, paths were cleared, a fence was put up and some of the structures were repaired. Ruins they remain, however, although a few new murals have been added.

The site now charges an entry fee - 600 rupees (£6.87) for foreigners, 150 rupees for Indians - and boasts a cafe and a small photo exhibition and some information signs.

One recent visitor was none other than Prudence herself, said Raju Nautiyal, a ranger with the Rajasthan Tiger Reserve who has helped in the clean-up.

"I used to sing 'Dear Prudence' and one day Prudence came to play," he said.

American visitor Atta Curzmann, 68, a "great Beatles fan" inspired to take a lasting interest in Indian spirituality, said she hoped the site would not be restored too much.

"The first time we came four or five years ago it was really run-down and we had to pay baksheesh (a bribe) to get in," she told a news source.

"But I hope they don't make it too lovely and perfect because you want to see that antiquity, that part of it that shows the history."

More For You

Starmer scraps NHS England to cut costs and improve care

Keir Starmer speaks with medical staff during a visit to the Elective Orthopaedic Centre at Epsom Hospital in Epsom, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Starmer scraps NHS England to cut costs and improve care


HUNDREDS of millions of pounds could be saved and patient waiting lists reduced as prime minister Keir Starmer announced plans to abolish NHS England, the body overseeing the state-funded health system.

In a speech delivered in Hull, Starmer explained his decision to streamline the National Health Service's management structure: "I can't, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy."

Keep ReadingShow less
Early risers in the UK witness stunning Blood Moon eclipse

The lunar eclipse of Friday may not have been as dramatic as the total eclipses seen in other parts of the world

iStock

Early risers in the UK witness stunning Blood Moon eclipse

In the early hours of Friday morning, stargazers across the UK were treated to a partial lunar eclipse, with many enthusiasts rising before dawn to catch a glimpse. The celestial event, which saw the Earth's shadow partially covering the Moon, began at 05:09 GMT. Although only partial for most UK observers, it still presented a spectacular sight, with western parts of the country and regions further afield, such as the Americas and some Pacific islands, witnessing the eclipse.

For some, like Kathleen Maitland, the experience was magical. Stargazing from Pagham Harbour in West Sussex, she described the beauty of watching the Moon gradually darken and transform into a reddish hue, with the sunrise unfolding behind her. The eclipse gave rise to the so-called "blood Moon," a phenomenon that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow, turning a dusky red as sunlight is refracted through the Earth's atmosphere.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sangam Foundation celebrates Women's Day

From L- Reetu Kabra, Maya Sondhi, Shobu Kapoor and Meera Syal during Sangam Foundation's Women's Day celebrations.

Sangam Foundation celebrates Women's Day

HUNDREDS of women gathered for the International Women's Day celebrations of Sangam Foundation last week. Prominent actresses Meera Syal, Shobhu Kapoor and Maya Sondhi have attended the event, a statement said.

The British Asian celebrities shared their experiences of breaking into an industry rife with misogyny and prejudice. The industry veterans also talked about challenges they faced in a male-dominated field.

Keep ReadingShow less
Asian tycoon Sudhir Choudhrie  backs Liberal
Democrats with £23,000

Sudhir Choudhrie

Asian tycoon Sudhir Choudhrie  backs Liberal Democrats with £23,000

BUSINESSMAN Sudhir Choudhrie has emerged as one of the biggest British Asian donors to the Liberal Democrats in the last quarter of 2024, according to the latest data from the Electoral Commission.

Choudhrie, currently an advisor on India to the leader of the Liberal Democrats, contributed on six different occasions to the party between October and December 2024, totalling more than £23,000. He contributed in a similar fashion in the previous quarter as well.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sunak is ‘content in his MP role
and has no desire to move to US’

(From left) Rishi Sunak with wife Akshata Murty, and parents Usha and Yashvir Sunak

Sunak is ‘content in his MP role and has no desire to move to US’

RISHI SUNAK “loves being an MP” and has no intention of flying to California to begin a new life in America, as his enemies alleged during the general election campaign last year.

And, unlike Boris Johnson, he is not striving to be prime minister again, even though he is still only 44.

Keep ReadingShow less