My tribute to MJ..

After a long time I had found a seat in the local bus to Dhulikhel. I was enjoying my time watching the lady beside me in a deep sleep. The bus driver was a man in his forties and that’s why I concluded he had the radio on-tuned to some F.M station.

Two kids got on the bus from Sallaghari. The sister was irritated for no reason with the little brother. She didn’t get a seat and was standing. The bus jolted and she nearly feel down. ‘You should hold the iron handles’ he told her. ‘Hey! Why should I do what you ask me to do’ she retorted. She was a lot older than her little brother and taller. I couldn’t comprehend why she was irritated. The bus drove on and the news from the F.M station came to an end. The news reader repeated the headlines.’King of pop:Michael Jackson dies at age fifty ‘.Oh!

Facebook was filled with Michael Jackson. It didn’t matter; he was only a child molester. In the evening every channel featured Michael Jackson. NDTV-Michael Jackson, BBC-Michael Jackson, CNN-Michael Jackson, Channel V-Michael Jackson, Vh1-Michael Jackson and CNN IBN-Michael Jackson.I couldn’t help watching. NDTV had this interesting feature about the influence of Michael in India. Every city has a number of Michael Jackson dancing academies. Some are pros while some gurus were giving there best shot in Akon’s ‘NA…NA…NA’. The whole Indian commercial cinema has been inspired by Michael’s moves. From Mihtun’s ‘Iam a disco dancer’ to Prabhu Deva in Pukar. Even Amitabh Bachhan when he was in the lows of his career had tried to ‘moonwalk’ in some weird attire and an even weirder song. It was funny. Govinda’s entry in the industry had been in Jackson style but the most look alike was ‘Javed Jaffery’. He surely danced like Jackson and he must have done more than a dozen shows in his style. The feature even showed a glimpse of one of his stage shows, wearing a curly wig, dressed in a golden suit and raising ‘the finger’. I was impressed.

BBC had a more comprehensive report. They had someone who had interviewed Jackson twice and clips of his hit songs. The radio reporter had also been invited to a party by him. He was sociable and soft spoken was his verdict. Michael’s first stage show, his erratic behavior- pretending to throw his child out of the window, his out of the blue love for animals, possible publicity stunt by getting friendly with a chimpanzee, Neverland, marriage with Lisa Marie Priestley, numerous plastic surgeries and yes the moonwalk was shown. Then I started feeling sad.

The next morning I felt sadder. Every newspaper was covered with news about his death.Kantipur had an interesting feature by Smita Magar. I never knew Dhiraj Rai is called the Michael Jackson of Nepal. He must know he doesn’t deserve the title. Still his reaction to the news was interesting. Rai had always been a huge fan of Jackson and when he was small you could watch Michael’s videos by paying one rupees in Bhrikutimandap but he and his friends always jumped the walls to get a free watch. Abhaya and Yanik all expressed sadness. The sale of Michaels albums were already increasing in ‘Tik n Tok’. Sanjay Shrestha’s reaction I detested. ‘I think we are similar because both of us sing in high scale’. C’mon do take the time to listen to your voice someday and then listen to Michaels.

I have never been a die hard Michael Jackson fan. The only song I can really remember is ‘Black or white’ and recently I tried to dance along with Anuska in Thriller. I couldn’t and realized what a great dancer Michael was. More than his music, dance, composition and lyrics I know him from all the things that went wrong in his life. After watching Lisa Marie’s interview on Oprah he was a manipulator to me. He married the daughter of the King of Rock and Roll because he thought of himself as the King of Pop and wanted an offspring. Oprah has always been a critique of Michael Jackson. The molestation charges against him might have been settled outside court but he was an unproved child molester. Lisa Marie insisted the marriage was real and they loved each other like any normal husband and wife. I had also watched this crap program on Vh1 which said Michael practiced voodoo. He wanted to act as ‘Peter Pan’ and since Steven Spielberg didn’t give him the job he had taken help from a tantric and made him ill. It included a list of people he wanted dead. I also remember reading news about Michael Jackson going for sex change. ‘Michael is now a woman’. It just makes me sad now. The price you have to pay for being the best-for being a great entertainer.

Michael Jackson in fact was never really real for me. He was a ghost. I couldn’t imagine him as a normal human being- someone who dressed normally. Always this media frenzy, this confusion is he black or white, the curly hair, the colorful army suit, the black glasses, which gender does he belong to, the plastic nose, plastic surgeries, Neverland?

But he was real and he was a legend. There will never be another Michael Jackson. His was a life that started and ended with the media. From his first stage shows to his last practice session the media replays the images as never before. His was a turbulent life-the first lie he told about his age recorded on camera, harassed by his father, all the media attention, the identity issues, nose surgeries, failed marriages, eccentric behavior.

Life isn’t fair but death is more unfair. M.J’s dead and so is the possibility of correcting the mistakes he made. No one is perfect and so wasn’t Jackson. Now that he’s dead few of us would like to remember he was the self proclaimed ‘king of pop’. I would like to forget all the bad, evil and ugly things that surrounded his life. He was par excellence in what he did and he deserves respect.

The king of pop-Everything thing we today is Michael Jackson. Every popular dance step- the hat, the black suit, the white armband, the black hat, white gloves, dancing shoes, robotic steps, love ballads. Who could have thought of moon walking except MJ?. Two days before his death he was practicing for his upcoming tour. The photos look so lively.

‘Pop’ reminds of mine own encounter with pop culture a long time along. Many years ago I was participating in an extempore-speech competition. It wasn’t hard core extempore. We were given four issues before hands and asked to prepare. One of the topics was pop culture. So the whole night I practice. I parrot the meaning of popular culture and two other topics. There is one topic I am unprepared about. The next day I am all geared up, I go a temple, ring the bells put on a saffron tika and pray to God to spare me that one topic. I enter the battlefield. The MC asks me to pick one folded piece of paper among four. Alas! I pick the one topic I am unprepared about. I am blank; I am apologetic and leave the stage. If only I had got another topic I know I would have nailed it. But now years later I know why I didn’t get to rant about Pop culture. The speech would be a sham. I knew so little of what I was speaking. I wouldn’t give the example of MJ and pop culture without MJ goes no where. This is my redemption. My small tribute to MJ.

I don’t know if MJ ever realized what a huge influence he was to the world. It was heart warming to watch the inmates of Philippines most guarded prison, hundreds of them dancing to his tunes on CNN. Dancing was introduced to the prison as a form of rehabilitation and they have become a hit with inmates. Once a month they perform in front of the public. They wanted MJ to perform for them but sadly it’s no more possible.

Maybe the winner stands alone………

(P.S:MJ had beautiful eyes and he was diagnosed with Vitiligo.)