Monday, December 14, 2009

WHEN THE IDOLS FALL…………………………….

Two fields that give men and women the utmost glamour are sports and cinema. In both, the heroes (the heroines and the villains) have larger than life image. They are recipients of unlimited adulation from public at large. People are willing to wait for hours to see them. A shake hand from them would make anyone’s life. A photograph with them will make a person a celebrity. These are Idols! For people, they are living Gods.

And among these Gods, there stand out certain names for their clean image and fairness. They have unblemished records in their professional and personal lives. The names that immediately come to mind are Amitabh Bachchan, Richard Harrison, Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar, Steffi Graf & Tiger Woods. They represent ethics, morale, decency and above all fairness. No doubt, they too are human beings with emotions, but by far, these men and women could balance their lives and emotions and come through very clean to the public. And we adored these champions for not only what they are but also for their qualities. And these men and women are invited by organizations such UN etc to be its Ambassadors for spreading the goodwill around the world.

And then there are names such as Beckham, Ronaldo, Maradona, The khans of Bollywood and the scores of Hollywood stars. All these are very presentable and enigmatic personalities. They too were recipients of unadulterated adulation of the fans. However, these men and women were also famous for their emotions, tantrums and fallibilities. Names of many famous (also infamous) men and women were linked up with them and these names changed very periodically. The Lals and Kumar and Khans and Khannas live a make-believe life where fans and followers of all age, beeline behind them. They get everything on the platter and also in multitudes; to the extent their rejects are more than the accepteds. This leads to one night stands and near-term affairs between the stars and the colleagues/fans/followings. Also, it is to be noted that these stars live long durations away from home and in their professions, they go thru tremendous levels of stress. These affairs temporarily take the stress away. By the time they realize that these were not waterfronts but only ‘mirages’, someone must have blown the whistle and the entire affairs would get the wash in the press, in the media and as gossip around dinner tables.

Coming back to the clean ambassadorial idols, l’affair de Tiger Woods had broken many hearts, for he had such a clean image among the public. Everyone wanted him to win and lead every course. Such was his image that very sensitive and clean corporates such as Omega Watches used him as its brand Ambassador. But lo and behold, the beans are spilled. It is said that he had not one, many affairs outside his marriage and today we watched the TV news of his wife Elin Nordegren consulting divorce lawyers. No sane person would ever have wished this for the Tiger.

What would happen to those people who, attracted by his clean image, with such empathy, had been praying for him to succeed al the time? He had broken their heart, for sure. Of all people, Tiger would be the last man they thought would fall into such traps.

When the idol falls, what happens? The trust is broken, the beliefs go to dogs and life loses its meaning. What else?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tiger has kandakashani. He should consult an astrologer in Kerala.