Popular Culture Review Volume 30, Number 2, Summer 2019 | Page 22

Side 3 , Side 2 : The Beatles in Jhumpa Lahiri ’ s The Namesake
fering them copies of his book The Illustrated Book of Yoga ( 1960 ); this first brush with Indian culture happened on Harrison ’ s 22 nd birthday ( Beatles Anthology 171 ). Harrison heard sitar for the first time on the Help ! movie set in London ( the restaurant scenes , originally designed for comic effect ) and promptly purchased one ( Shapiro 69 ).
2 . At a party in Beverly Hills in August 1965 , David Crosby and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds introduced Harrison to Ravi Shankar ’ s music .
3 . In October 1965 , the Beatles taped their sitarembellished first take of “ Norwegian Wood .”
4 . Ravi Shankar “ met George for the first time in June 1966 , one evening in a friend ’ s house in London ” ( Shankar 189 ); he gave Harrison his first sitar lesson at Harrison ’ s home in Esher ( Cox 70 ).
5 . In September 1966 , two weeks after the Beatles final concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco , Harrison went to India for six weeks to study sitar in Mumbai with Shankar .
6 . In August 1967 , all four Fabs attended the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ’ s lecture in London .
7 . Harrison “ traveled to India in December 1967 where he wrote , arranged , and produced an entire album ( Wonderwall ) of tuneful , soothing , Indian-inspired music ” ( Shapiro 83 ); he was in Mumbai from January 7 – 13 , 1968 , overseeing the project .
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