I made my first visit to Chaurasi Kutiya, now popularly known as the Beatles Ashram, in Rishikesh way back in 2003. The simple idea of my trip was to write a piece for the Hindustan Times, where I was working as a reporter. The visit took me to the erstwhile Ashram of spiritual Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and I was stunned by the landscape of the area, architect of the buildings and could feel the vibration.
To make my report interesting and insightful, I began searching for local persons who would provide me with details about the 1968 tour of the musical group and the Ashram history. But, I failed to locate any such person in the pilgrimage town. I extended my search through the internet and established contact with two time Emmy award-winning Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman, photographer Ram Panjabi and other persons who had stayed at Maharishi Ashram or visited there during the Fab Four stay.
The process of obtaining information about the visit of the boys from Liverpool in the Indian Himalayas and other facts about Chaurasi Kutiya still continues. In fact, it has turned into an obsession.
After visiting all the old photo studios of Rishikesh and failing to trace old photographs of the Maharishi Ashram and the Beatles, I fixed my search outside Rishikesh. Adventure tour expert Avinash Kohli, considered a pioneer in river rafting in Rishikesh, was the only local tour operator who had some photographs of the Beatles and Maharishi at his camp near Shivpuri. Searching for veteran photographer Ram Panjabi in Bangalore and motivating him to track 1968 negatives and make some prints took almost seven years. In a similar fashion, I collected news clippings and documents from 1968 from different places.
These days I enjoy a new role of conducting tours of the Ashram. Call it a heritage guide or tourist guide. After hosting tours of friends, journalists and dignities, in 2017 I got the opportunity to host a tour of a team of the Beatles Story, a Beatles themed museum based in Liverpool (England). Walking with Diane Glover and Clare Ireland and narrating my stories was thrilling as I interacted with a team who conserves artefacts, and memories, and promotes the Beatles' legacy. With time I developed friendships with Maharishi followers- including Tony Ellis, Raja Richard, Tim Jones, etc- and family members and it has provided a booster dose to my search. Maharishi’s nephew Anand Shrivastava and his son Laxman Shrivastava were very cooperative and helpful. The duo extended help in reviving the Maharishi Ashram.
With time people are expressing interest in doing something for the revival of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram. This is a good sign! And we expect the old glory of the Ashram to return soon.
(The author is a journalist based in Dehradun. He is also serving as a brand ambassador of the Beatles Story, Liverpool)
