i shared my room with two people when i grew up-my brother and that man who stared with an icy stare,dressed in a black shirt and white jacket,the black man with super fizzy hair.the man in that poster behind my door.these were the days when "western music" had started infiltrating the impermeable membrane of rabindra sangeet around my family.
it was infront of this stare that we tried the moonwalk and failed terribly.those days international albums were sold for a princely sum of Rs 125.i had seen my brother walk to college and save up for the cassettes.
Dangerous was a song i was allowed to hear and dance to whenever i had been a good girl.
that poster was taken off when my room got painted.and my brother left for mumbai.
that man in the poster lost his fizzy hair and his skin colour.and the media said stories...
i remember having called up my brother and telling him that i am learning odissi,the same dance featured in the video of Black or White.he confused it with the malaysian dance,ofcourse.
they called him a pedophile,they called him anti-semitic,they called him a monster...but that man,for me,was a part of my growing up.and today he went away-taking a huge chunk of my childhood.
he could've been the peter pan of his own neverland...he could've always remained that little Illinois boy whose father whipped him with a belt each time his moon walking feet falter.
maybe,he wanted to dance like that little Illinois boy forever but the world couldnt let go of its whip that tried whipping him into perfectness each time his steps faltered.
RIP MJ.
you have been a hero to a generation which saw no heroes before you.
10 comments:
Lovely piece. Brings back a lot of memories including my small book on how to learn break dance...!
I grew up in the MJ era! Thriller released in 1982. I use to hum beat it everyday.
Your piece brought back a lot of crazy memories ...back in the days when I grew up alone...never went out to play with friends. Didn't know how to play the guitar nor did I want to. Had brought a book on MJ from Chennai( class 4 school trip) for my mum. She still has it. Still wonder why an MJ book from chennai for my mom...lolz. That book has a photograph of MJ wearing a belt with a small guitar in place of the buckles. I always wanted to wear a belt like that.
Billie Jean will live forever!
yes,and so will the smooth criminal :(
a lovely elegy for him...comes straight from the heart :) loved how u ended it!
I really REALLY like this post. Partly because you have captured my thoughts perfectly, and partly because you seem to have said everything I wanted to, but I just couldn't bring myself to blog about it. Losing MJ is like losing a part of our childhood - we all grew up with him, and whether or not we liked his music, whether or not we liked his dancing - it was impossible to ignore him.
No one can deny what he did for the music industry, and songs like Thriller, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal (to name just a few) will be around for a long, long time.
RIP MJ.
sigh... i still have an old mj poster kept away in a drawer.. sigh..
Hello Bedatri,
This is Sourik. I am a poet.
Just visited your blog and found this piece of yours really interesting bringing back seductive memories of the 'Man in the Mirror' in my mind. I do loved him a lot, the pain who endured a lot of pains , fought against the disease vitiligo only for the sake of music. He is not dead. He will always remain alive in all of our minds, as the evergreen MJ as always, although i do miss him a lot at times...:( :(
Do drop by my blog , my fellow blogger, because someone would be eagerly waiting on the other side expecting your response...:) :)
Cheers!
Sourik
You've said it all so well. I can't put in words what MJ's death means but "losing a chunk of my childhood" sums it up very well.
I really couldn't add more to what has already been said... We'll all miss him a lot, I'm sure....
Beautiful piece Bdc, it's a perfect ode to a legend in himself...
Loved the unusual surreal colour.....Would def come back for more.Check out some of my poems on my blog.
www.deepteshpoetry.blogspot.com
Back in MHS, I remember how we schoolgirls used to celebrate each occasion by invariably including a MJ dance number in our list of performances, 'Billie Jean' and 'Black & White' being favourites. Then there was my friend Brinda, who showed off her singing skills in elocution class and on every other occasion by reproducing her version of 'Heal The World' (she did go off scale at one particular point every time, but that was what we most enjoyed as it seemed to be the USP of her rendition)...
And then there was Ma, who deemed English music newfangled nonsense ('the death of culture', she termed it) and caused me an entire week of extreme misery (I was in Class VI then) by tearing up into irretrievable bits a full length poster of the only star in my musical universe at that phase of my life...
You are so sadly right. He's taken away a large, sensuous 'chunk of my childhood' with him. And things will never be the same.
And I detest the media (American, at least) for paying obeisance to him by digging up all the dirt that(n)ever clung to his past. D#*n them.
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