Beatles everywhere!

After lunch, we continued our walk along the river bank to visit the Beatles Ashram. Local enterprising businesses have certainly made the most of the fact that the band were here for a couple of months in 1968 and wrote some songs during their stay. There is wall art everywhere with a whole street named after them. Even very ramshackle food outlets and hostels carry the Beatles name.

Not having read up about it in advance, I was a bit shocked when we actually reached what is known as the Beatles Ashram. The original name of the ashram is Chaurasi Kutiya. This name has now been given to the tiger reserve, part of which houses the ruins of the ashram. On the pretext of protecting the wild tigers, elephants, deer, and other animals that live in the forest, the local government charge 1200 rupees to every Beatles fan or general tourist who wants to see the ashram. This might be OK if there was the chance of seeing an animal once you'd paid your money, but that was clearly not going to happen. There wasn't a fence or a wildlife ranger in sight. Instead, you walk through the delapidated ruins of the place where the Beatles once stayed. The front section is a building site. The ashram was abandoned in the 70s. Renovations began last year. The intention is to restore the place to a functioning ashram. It's going to take many years and a lot of money for that to happen.Read more