As I pen these lines,my facebook & twitter timelines are flooded with updates about how ‘The Dark Knight rises’ has finally given a fitting finale to the World’s most loved superhero… However,for someone who’s waited so eagerly for the final movie in Nolan’s Batman trilogy,my mind’s been strangely pre-occupied.. At 10 in the morning,surfing through news to bide my time through attendance,the headline of Rajesh khanna’s demise had little effect on me..I had never been a Rajesh Khanna fan,my tryst with his movies restricted to some of his lesser known movies & only a few of his classics.. In hindsight,I’d say my sensibilities at that age just weren’t good enough to appreciate ‘Classic Bollywood’… How could I??...My parents were still in college when ‘KAKA’ was at the height of his unparalleled career…Having witnessed the hysteria & frenzy he generated in those days ,(something which led to the epithet ‘superstar’ being coined & used first time for a Bollywood star)
*This piece was written for the 2017 edition of Dhanvantari~the annual magazine of AFMC,Pune.So if you possess a copy and would prefer reading it there,you know what to do.Everyone else,read on* The red bulb is on.The hero and a bunch of relatives are pacing back and forth in the corridor,worry writ large on their faces. Next you know,the camera zooms into the Operation Theatre,you see masked men and women in green and an ECG which dramatically turns into a straight line with multiple beeps.The people in green exchange glances,a shake of the head and a cloth comes up on the face of the deceased. The doctor steps out.The relatives look at him half-expectantly,half I say coz lightning and thunder at the exact moment the deceased breathed his last have already prepared them for the worst. Not to forget,the framed picture that fell off the wall before the accident happened last night. Now insert any of the following dialogues and you’d have your typical masala Bollywoo
Even as I gasped and struggled in the waters,memories of me asking mother as to why someone who didn't know swimming would go near a water body flashed through my mind.My tone had been condescending and dismissive of their ‘foolishness’.Mom of course was more worldly wise and besides explaining that thing called ‘fate’ she cautioned me against speaking ill of the dead. I sat mum for three hours straight even as my friends played the cricket match we had set out to.I had been rescued by a classmate and how I felt for the rest of the day cannot be put in words.That evening,even as my mom said a small prayer choking with tears and hugged me,remorse and thankfulness weren't mere adjectives anymore.I had felt death up close and personal. One night,11 years later,I was driving all agog with excitement that being my first time on a highway. Surrounded by fumes from trucks and the dust floating around,I decided to get the visor of my helmet down.It
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bol de...bol de...sochta hai kya??...hum agar hote toh bol diya hota ;)