Ravi Shankar

There was always something that drew my close to George's songs that sounded different than most of the other Beatles styles. It took me a few months to learn what this fabulous instrument was - called a sitar. Since then, it was one of the instruments that I want to play someday. There is one man who helped George learn about his love and interest for this instrument just like mine, and this man was named Ravi Shankar. 

Ravi Shankar was famous for being one of the best sitar players in the world, but he will forever be remembered in my mind as one of George Harrison's best friends. It seemed like after 1965, they were always around each other and never lost contact with each other until George's death in 2001. Since we lost Ravi in 2012, I always like to think that him and George are together playing the sitar and laughing about old memories. 

The first time I think I ever saw or really got to know Ravi was when I bought a copy of "The Concert of Bangladesh". He was the one who really urge the fact to George on what was going on in Bangladesh during that time and he had the brilliant idea to make a concert in 1971 to raise money for the cause. From that time on, he was one of my favorite people in history. I'll never forget watching him with his daughter during "The Concert of George", all of them getting together to remember the great man that they were all friends with and will always morn his loss.

On April 29, Ravi's 95th birthday, he will have his own exhibition in the US at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles which will have a collection of sitars, artifacts and photographs of his throught out all of his years active in music. I think this is a great honor and I'm very proud that Ravi will be able to receive this to have some of his stuff on show. 

I feel like our generation won't be keen on the idea of traditional Indian sitar music, I know that Anoushka Shankar is still making music like her father did. With having his memory still live on in the Grammy Museum, someone in the future visiting there could have their interest sparked from his memory and keep this style of music alive. 

(Words: 415)