The Electric Chair

I know its late for this post, but I dont want stuff to remain unsaid, so better late than never. This post is about Rajkumar's death and people's reaction to it.

Let me start off by saying that not having seen a single of his movies and understanding his place in people's hearts through a rational and not emotional point of view, my understanding of the entire situation may not completely attuned to the finer aspects. But reacting to a particular situation is the logical consequence of being in the midst of it, and therefore I'd like to share my reactions with my readers and find out how many of you feel alike.

The most striking realisation inspired from this episode is that Bangalore is so different from the image that non Bangaloreans (which includes people who've been in Bangalore since a few years, but not born and brought up here) have in their minds. Events such as these make poeple look at this city in a different light. And this could mean several things: In the corporate perspective it could tilt the balance against Bangalore as an investment destination; for a college student somewhere in Nagpur, it could make Bangalore look decidedly uncool.

Also, the violence was really baffling. Here is a man, who is of ripe age and dies of natural causes. If he was 45, and had died in police custody, the buring of tyres would have made some sense. Will the same kind of reaction greet the death of Rajnikant or Amitabh Bachchan? Is it justificaiton that the public have immense love and adoration for him? In that case why dont they behave in a similar fashion when their father dies?

The day of Rajkumar's funeral I went happened to see TV for a while. Majority of the people looked as if they were in some mela. There was scant grief apparent. Some were laughing. Some looked drunk. The death of a dignitary seems to be an excuse to act irresponsibly. This is really pathetic, as I think that one should at least have the balls to behave irresponsibly without any excuse. What is more pathetic though is people acting like heros in these circumstances. There is no bravery in venturing into troubled areas and subjecting yourself to the vagaries of a mob. Unless of course you dont mind dying a painful death. Unfortuantely, I had to go drop Seema to the airport that day, since none of the cabs were operating. I stuck a photo of rajkumar (downloaded and printed from the net). I know of people who refused to take this simple safety measure solely on some arcane moralistic (or maybe egoistic) high ground. The upside is that I did the trip back from the airport to office in under 18 minutes (and its about 18 kms). And also appreciation due to the CM... the roads are almost awesome now!

Its time Bangalore started behaving its age.

# posted by A Chrysanthemum by any other name... : 11:57 AM