Horizons - Filled with Hope

Obviously his acting has to be one of the reasons. To say he was a versatile actor would be the understatement of the century. He portrayed Gods, kings, Detectives, Police officers, Common man, beggar, villain … all with equal ease and grace. But was that all??

No. He was a very principled man. Statistics speak for themselves. He acted in over 200 movies in his lifetime. And..

• Not a single of these movies had any smoking or drinking scenes
• No vulgarity whatsoever
• ALL OF THEM WERE KANNADA MOVIES (well that sets a new definition for “Love for your Mother-tongue”). This doesn’t mean he hated other languages. He just had utmost respect or his own mother tongue
• He never entered politics. Make no mistake : had he wished, he could’ve become CM of Karnataka without beating a sweat. But he dint. He was miles away from politics

I doubt there is any actor in India who can boast of such principle. All this from a man who only studied upto 3^rd Standard.

RajKumar also died a peaceful death. Not much suffering or pain. Thankfully. Just a sudden cardiac arrest and he was gone.

Then why the violence during his funeral? A man who stood for peace throughout his life dint deserve all this. His soul must have been shattered to see all this. Obviously it was not his “fans” who did all this. His family dint get to spend one single private moment with his corpse. Did they deserve all this?

This brings us to the topic of mob mentality. My heart bled to see innocent people being tortured the way they were during those 2 days. Cars being smashed and burnt, buildings and petrol pumps damaged so badly, they were unrecognizable. Policemen being dragged from their vehicles and being beaten up. And then the crowd (supposedly “mourners”) celebrating their act of bravery by whistling in front of the TV cameras.

All this brings a bad name to Bangalore and worse to RajKumar. People watching from outside would be cursing our greatest hero of all time. Little do they know what a peaceful man he was and that all this is diametrically opposite to his values.

I was really stunned by watching all this on TV. Ever since watching RDB, I had had a confidence that it is possible to change the country. This incident has kind of shaken my confidence. Rulers can be changed. Politicians can be changed. The system can be improved. BUT NOT THE PEOPLE. They will remain the same. You cant change the mentality of the masses.

I fervently hope this is a one-off incident. I fervently hope that what we saw on Black Wednesday and an even darker Thursday was the handiwork of only a minor percentage of the public and not representative of the public in general. I eagerly look forward to a country where people respect the law and respect others’ right to a peaceful life. It feels good to finish off your blog on an optimistic note :). Jai Hind.