How Hariprasad Chaurasia helped George Harrison fall in love with Indian classical music

It was 50 years ago, this year, when the Beatles visited India for the first time. The band wanted to learn about transcendental meditation, so they spent weeks living in an ashram, a spiritual retreat.

That experience was especially significant for George Harrison, the lead guitarist of the Beatles. He went on to devote himself to Indian spiritual values and dove into Indian classical music.

One of the people who helped him on this journey was Hariprasad Chaurasia, a master of the bansuri, a North Indian bamboo flute.

Musicians from all over the world travel to India, to learn from Chaurasia, just like George Harrison did. To this day, he still teaches and performs at sold-out shows all around the world. When he was last in Vancouver, he took some time to share a few memories about his friendship with George Harrison and explain just how powerful the bansuri can be.

— Produced by Elaine Chau