If he were still alive, Ravi Shankar would have been 100 years old this year.
Years ago, I went with my parents to see him perform at London’s Barbican in a concert celebrating his 80th birthday. His daughter, Anoushka Shankar was the support act that evening and is truly her father’s natural successor. She of course had the privilege of being under the tutelage of her ‘Bapi’, but is nevertheless a great musician in her own right. I remember George Harrison, who was also in the audience that evening, giving her a thumbs up during her performance - praise indeed. She smiled coyly and bowed her head in recognition.
Sadly, Harrison died the following year in November, 2001. He wrote in the Foreword for Ravi Shankar’s autobiography, “He’s always been like a guru and a father figure, but at the same time I think mainly of him just as a friend, because we joke around most of the time. Sometimes I’m like his Dad. He can be so childlike.”