For all those who love Beatles

A day at Mathew Street in the amazing city of Liverpool (in its own peculiar sense - which I will talk about later) in England......
It was nostalgic as it took me decades back. All of us (in my age group) have grown up listening to Beatles and we all are aware that Liverpool is the city associated with this legendary group.
But standing at the place where this (then inconspicuous) group used to play and from where these boys turned from city lads to `The Bealtes', was unbelievable.

The whole street reverberates a nostalgic ambiance. The Beatles Shop - selling everything under the sun with Beatles on it or The Lennon's Bar - the whole place, full of stories of The Beatles. As I tried to soak the atmosphere, we are in front of the Cavern Club - the place from where the group started their journey from nothing to the top of the music world.










We went down the eighteen steps to reach the basement - I was instantly transported to an other world. The graffiti on the exposed brick walls of the basement - which used to be a warehouse in the 1800s, the old phone box with Beatles pictures inside, the Beatles' bigger than life size face murals on the wall - nothing was missing as young Richard Batty aptly filled the gaps.












Richard was the young star of the day - strumming his guitar with nimble fingers he was singing all Beatles songs in his mellifluous voice. The ambiance had everything to transport us to a different era. I requested him to sing Imagine... and he obliged me instantly.





The description outside the Cavern Club tells the story of the rise of The Beatles and the actual pictures of that time display the mania this group created in people fond of good music.

The visit to this place was a real treat for me and I thank Sandra and Alfie for this, who took me there. I had no clue that this small basement would open a new world for me.

As we came out to the real world, a thought emerged. Even we Indians have many legendary singers - for an example Begum Akhtar or KL Sahgal. Why havn't we ever thought of making them immortal in this way. We have never celebrated the places, which made these singers or any artiste for that matter, famous.

Why have we never tried to create cultural tourism popular in this way?