In search of Harrison’s lost guitar

The columnist C Y Gopinath with George Harrison’s guitar. Pic/Khalif Mitha

For 20 years, George Harrison's guitar lay in a box in an apartment's store room in Padamsee apartments at Pali Hill, Bandra, part of the forgotten debris there. Since it had never been opened, no one even knew that it contained a guitar. Or that it was Harrison's parting gift to a family whose company he had enjoyed while in India.

Yesterday, in a living room in Pune, I reverently held that very guitar in my hands and dared play a few notes on it.

This is the story of how that moment came to pass.

It is well-chronicled that George Harrison, only 25 then, arrived in India on January 7, 1968 with his buddy Neil Aspinall to record the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall. He travelled as Sam Wells, a cover he had used on his 1966 India visit.

The "quiet Beatle" was known for his fluid, quicksilver lead guitar riffs - and his reclusivity. It was understood that he didn't want to stay at the Taj Hotel. A room was booked in a Hotel Oscar on Pali Hill Road. When I visited it last week, the words ‘Hotel Oscar' were clearly etched on a metal plate by the gate but the electric sign above says the place is now The Perch, after a successful second avatar as Shatranj.

It must have been mere hours after he checked in that Sam Wells' cover was blown.

Word travelled up the short, steep lane directly opposite Hotel Oscar to reach Padamsee Apartments, where Beatles fan Ismail Padamsee lived: George Harrison, he learnt, was just a stroll away. Ismail walked down to the hotel and invited the legendary musician for a cuppa at his house.

The conversation, we must assume, was as good as the tea. Harrison dropped in uninvited several times after that for tea and chit-chat with Ismail and his wife Dowlut. It became a thing.

Around the time he left India, George Harrison visited Padamsee Apartments one last time carrying a box, but the Padamsees were not home. The box was left with the chowkidar. Assuming it was Harrison's personal property and that he would come by to collect it, Ismail instructed the chowkidar to park it somewhere safe.

We do not know where it went next. Perhaps the porch or the backyard, or the garage. We know only that no one came to claim it and that it disappeared from sight and memory.

Twenty years passed.

Meanwhile, Ismail's daughter Taslim married Kabir Mitha, and in 1974, they had a son, Khalif.

Khalif remembers hearing Can't Buy Me Love at age four and being utterly captivated. He has been a lifelong Beatles fan, a walking encyclopaedia of Beatles trivia and factoids.

One day as he was entering his teenage years, his mother casually said, "Do you know George Harrison once came to this house for tea?"

Khalif's jaw must have dropped.

"Ask your grandfather, he knows," she continued. "George even left some box here but no one opened it. No one came to collect it."

Khalif was beside himself, overwhelmed by the implications. "George Harrison was here. He left a box. No one opened it. No one claimed it," he said. "So it must still be in the house."

Mother and son embarked on a journey into the dark depths of the store room, past layers of dust, memories and the detritus of yesteryears, and finally found the dusty old case. The gift George left the Padamsees was still inside, intact.

George Harrison's lost guitar is semi-hollow with a sunburst finish, vignetting from a dark outer edge to a warm amber centre. The tag says it was made in Japan but the brand is smudged beyond legibility. An expert says it could be a Harmony.

Two f-shaped holes are visible on each side, characteristic of acoustic guitars with electric tonal properties. Mounted on the body are two metallic pickups, likely humbuckers or single-coil types. Under the vintage-style tremolo arm are four knobs for controlling tone and volume.

Khalif, already owner of 26 guitars, cherished Harrison's gift as a relic but didn't tinker with it. When he saw his college buddy Arpana Gvalani struggling to start a burger joint called Gostana in Bandra, he loaned her Harrisons's guitar to display, sure it would help increase her footfalls.

Meanwhile, Khalif married Radhika. Soon the family grew by one when Rahim Khalif Mitha was born.

When COVID-19 hit, Gostana closed down for good but the guitar stayed with Arpana, who became a food and music blogger.

It should surprise no one that Khalif's son Rahim is more a Beatles aficionado than the father. Soon it was time for Ismail Padamsee's precious guitar to came home once again, this time going to his great-grandson.

Khalif has no plan to sell George Harrison's legacy. He would like to restore it to its pristine condition, though a master luthier has not been easy to find.

There is a small lesson for everyone in this story: the next time you send someone a gift, make sure it looks like a gift. And has a note with your name on it.

You can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopi@gmail.com
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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.