No One Can BEAT IT

Its funny that your first blog post after quite a long lull happens to be an Obituary. But its much more than a mere obituary. I've poured a part of my soul into this post. This post is my tribute to a guy who used to answer to the name of a certain Michael Joseph Jackson. I know its late but better late than never.

My first exposure to this guy was when i was some 7-8 years old. I used to listen to the audio casettes that my uncle stacked upon in a shelf. These were cassettes bought by him during his college days. I simply used to switch casette after casette just to kill boredom or you can say that the audio in them did not captivate me then. It was during one such casette session that i chanced upon a new casette titled "Philips Car Stereo". It didn't take me long to be enthralled by the music it played. I was addicted to that casette and the music in it. I used to exclaim to everyone that "Philips Car Stereo" was my favourite song. It was only much later that i came to know that the song in the casette is actually titled "Bad" and the singer was a certain Michael Jackson. This realization was much later, about a year or two ago when i heard the actual "Bad" track by MJ.

But my first experience of MJ's music, realizing the singer as MJ, was around the same time, when my uncle showed me a video and asked me to see the brilliant dance steps in it. That video was titled "Thriller". I was mesmerized by the man with long hairs dancing like that. My uncle told me that his name was MJ and he was the best in English Music and Dance. It was around the same time that the movie "Kadhalan" was released and Prabu Deva aping MJ's movements in "Muqabala" song brought MJ closer to me. Later MJ faded away from my memory. Though I kept reading and hearing about him in the news now and then, I cared less. My interests varied and dancing was not a part my routine as it used to be when i was a 7 -8 year old. But still whenever i thought about dance, it was only MJ's images that came to my mind.

It was only after that we bought a computer, only after we got a broad band connection, only after we switched to the Unlimited Download scheme and only after my brother started downloading MJ's videos, that my interest in him revived. It was only then that i saw a lot of his videos like Smooth Criminal, Heal the World, the entire Thriller, Bad and so on. It was only then that i realized his genius completely. I was in awe of his moonwalk collections. "Beat It" became my signature tone, ring tone and so on. Almost all my quizzes featured a question on him or his albums.

I was saddened when unconfirmed reports suggested that he was suffering from a terminal illness and was counting his days, last year. I was overjoyed when he announced his comeback to perform 50 concerts in London. I sincerely wished that he would do well and once again prove to the world that he is the unparalleled King of Pop.

It was early morning on the 26th of June. I was lying in my bed, when by brother woke me up and told me that MJ was dead. I was shell shocked. I immediately went in front of the TV and spent almost the entire day in front of it. I kept playing and replaying "Beat It" in my cell phone in addition to seeing it being played countless times in the TV. I dont usually care much when a celebrity dies, but even without my knowledge, I spent an entire day sulking over the death of this person. What did he mean to me? Perhaps he meant something to me. Else i wouldn't have sulked for an entire day. The fact that he died on the verge of his comeback was even more saddening. But later reports suggested that he was virtually a living skeleton and carried numerous illness in his body. If that was true, then he had left the world for good, rather than live and suffer.

There have been numerous controversies that have engulfed his personal life and numerous accusations that were never proven. I choose not to believe those accusations. Even if it were true and he was indeed a paedophile,i dont care for i love him for what he has done in his professional life and that alone stays. There are numerous instances of geniuses all around us who were flawed in their personal lives. Albert Einstein, Kamal Hassan, Shane Warne to name a few. Yet we also have people who excelled both in their personal and professional lives namely Sachin Tendulkar, Rajinikanth, A R Rahman, Viswanathan Anand,etc. People remember them all only for what they have done professionally. And for me, as a professional, MJ was simply the best. My uncle called him the best in English music and dance. I dont know if he is the best in the former for i haven't heard much of English music to comment on it, but when it comes to dance, there is MJ and then there are the others. There is simply none like him. His numerous records speak of his genius and to me NO ONE CAN BEAT IT.