MICHAEL JACKSON

He is gone. In all the probability, he is a star now on the sky, a very bright one at that!

Last Monday was his funeral function at Los Angelos. Speeches, songs, prayers, it was a busy ceremony. With so many well known artistes and public figures attending the same. The gold plated casket carrying his body was in the forefront. With that as the witness, people went on speaking / reading / singing his praise. I was very impressed watching the whole show. Simultaneously, it was being watched by whole the world. How many of the dead ones get such a privilege?

Listening to the speakers about Michael Jackson was a great learning, I must confess. Speaker after speaker sang his virtues. Koby Bryant revealed that Michel Jackson was listed in the Guinness Book as the Pop star who did the maximum charity. Al Sharpton screamed a lot asking the world not to focus on the mess that Jackson had created but on the message of love that he had spread through his songs and performances. He also said that Michael Jackson was one of the pioneers to have gained the respect for the blacks (African Americans). The Tiger woods and Obamas must be grateful to Jackson, he said. Jackson interconnected the whole people of the world; the blacks, the whites, the Asians, the Africans and the Latinos thru his music and gave everyone the comfort, he reiterated. Between each line, he was getting huge applause from the audience.

Then there was his daughter Paris, who did an impromptu. She came on the stage and said Michael Jackson was the best daddy the in the world and she cried after that and the whole world cried with her. It was a touching moment. I too could not help weeping.

I am not much of a Jackson fanatic. In fact my attention to popular music is limited three four numbers, in all. However, one of it is written and sung by Jackson, along with others. “We are the world”…... Every time I hear it, it touches the raw nerve of mine and I become very emotional.

Michael Jackson indeed was a musical genius. History has very few like him. The euphoria of Elvis Presley was a similar one. There is connect between them. Jackson had an unsuccessful marriage with Presley’ daughter. Both at musical level and at performance level, Michael Jackson was way up. His moon walking gait is world famous.

What I fail to understand is why he became broke. For a man who had cut the maximum platinum disc in the worlds, where had all his money gone? He was scheduled to start a tour this month and taken huge advance from the sponsors. Then one had heard the fracas he has had with some Saudi princes. What a pity!

It would not be untrue to say Michael Jackson lived as an unhappy person. Health wise, it is said that he was always on medication, particularly the pain killers. It is even suspected that he died of an overdose the same. The child in him earned for much more than what reality was. And the child in him refused to grow up. The only place he was happy was the stage. What scintillating performances had he delivered! What mass hysteria had he created! Never repeatable by anyone!

To his fans he was God. He delivered the message of love, happiness and charity. But he lived unhappily, of course amidst all the affluences. With one scandal after another and through many failed marriages.

The legacy of Jackson is the music he had left behind. Inimitable, original scores! Truly awesome performances! He took Pop music to very high level. Unassailable by many! It would take very long for his memory fade away from people’s mind.

For all you know, he had left behind so much that his name would ever lastingly linger on Mother Earth.

But for now, he is one of the brightest stars on the sky.