Moonwalker

There are celebrities and there are celebrities..Few command the following he did and few deserve it too.A life of extreme brilliance, sadly on slow decline..Overshadowed by his erratic behavior and maligning tabloids. It had gotten to a stage where it was unfashionable to admit to being a fan..It had been long since I watched his videos and tried imitating his 'twirl and balance' routine. I had started to believe that our own Hritick and Prabhudeva were as good a match, if not better. But the slew of videos these last two days have shown me how wrong I was. There is really no follow-up to that..

True, the man and his legend will live on..so will ridicule about his appearance and jokes on paedophilia..And that is the unkindest cut.

Most of us have thought it hypocritical that he bleached his skin to turn white. Till it was revealed that he was suffering from vitiligo, a skin condition which made skin patchy and light over time, aggravated by sun exposure.That explained the hat and the reclusivity. The constant pancake layer he wore..Beautiful people the world over are obsessed with the way they look. So why single out his obvious complex over his looks for ridicule..I know I'd be doing everything I could to look good if I were as photographed as he was.. Suddenly, jokes about his appearance don't seem funny anymore..
I, for one, have never believed the child molestation allegations against him. The media being what it is, you'd get labelled a paedophile even if you were to hug another's child! And that fame and wealth tend to attract trouble is undeniable.
True, he was eccentric in his ways. (Most gifted people are!) Maybe, more so that he could remain in news.. but there was an underlying sweetness about him which endeared him more to his fans than the bizarre tales. Inspite of the mask that his face had become in the last few years, his shy half smile appealed..one thing which the failed surgeries didn't corrode.

So here we had a man who was eccentric when he wasn't performing.. who, at 50, believed in magic and thought that if he concentrated hard enough, he'd fly..someone naive to the point of stupidity when it came to finances..H e was also a hypochondriac who struggled with serious health complications and complexes for most of his adult life, an extremely talented artiste, working hard on a comeback plan inspite of ailing health, a man definitely not wanting to go down without a fight...An 'invincible' but with human frailties..someone as deserving of our understanding as he was of our awe......

And whenever a moonwalk is attempted , we'll think of no other. Now that's some copyright..