And then we came to an end

So what we were talking about?

I don’t remember.

Haha, why?

I’m a little sleepy.

Then go to sleep. Why are you forcing yourself to remain awake?

Because what if you get your visa tomorrow and leave and don’t even have time to say goodbye? I’ll sleep when you leave.

God! You’re so paranoid. I’m not going to get my Visa tomorrow. And I won’t leave in a day. And I won’t leave without saying goodbye.

You promise?

Yes. I promise.

. . . . . . . .

Hi, good morning!

Good morning!

Guess what?

Honey, I’m too tired to play the guessing game right now. So go on?

I just got a call from the embassy. I finally got my Visa!

HUH?

When do you leave?

Tomorrow….

Not a Dangerous Thriller

When I was old enough to have my own room, I sort of inherited it from my elder siblings. They had a variety of posters in their room because I think that's what kids used to do back then. Now, I removed the Samantha Fox and Bruce Sprigsteen posters because staring at a chic in her drawers was never my thing. However, I let one poster stand. It looked exactly like the one pictured above.

Cause I knew who Michael Jackson was before I could even read or write.

There were many pop acts and artists who were the rage when I was growing up. However, no one was as big as Michael Jackson. Most of my good childhood memories have some kind of Jackson song playing in the background.

Whether it was being thrown out of class and being punished because I wrote the lyrics to Black or White instead of my cursive writing assignment . . .

. . . Or playing basketball with Jam blaring from the boombox.  (Oh, and the song was a pop culture phenomenon. It had the other MJ, Micheal Jordan and who could miss Kriss Kross!!)

I even remember watching him perform during the Grammy awards (back when they actually meant something) in 1988, on bootleg video of the DD broadcast!

 

My and my cousins were actually put his performance on repeat and were dancing along.

When I think about it, it seems so lame. At that time we thought were so cool and so funny! 

 

Hey, we didn't have cable TV or the internet. So how was a brother supposed to pass time?

 

Anyway, some of his songs told me stuff about me which even I didn't know was true!

Seems so ironic now.

Maybe these songs remind me of a time when I wasn't such a cynical, jaded, smartass gasbag. Maybe it's because these songs were our symbol of rebellion, PG-13 style.

Before yesterday, when someone thought of Michael Jackson, it was usually his Wacko Jacko persona.

However, he will be remembered by most people as someone who made great music.

I'd like to say that maybe we will learn from this. Maybe we won't make other children go through the life he went through. Maybe people will finally realize that that fame, celebrity and notoriety is not for everyone. I've read a lot of comments at various places which says that when people become famous, they sign up for the tsunami which is going to change their lives. That it's okay to dehumanise someone because they are rich and famous. Surely there is no schadenfreude behind such a train of thought?

Yes, the jokes and the sleazy tabloid stories will come tomorrow. People will huff and puff for a few minutes while pretend-serious media outlets will cover those stories while their anchors feign outrage all the way to the bank. Even in death, the Michael Jackson story is going to make a lot of people a lot of money.

But today, I'd just like to . . .

 

R.I.P.

You know you've spent a quarter of a century on earth

- if you saw the first Die Hard in a theater during it's original run

- when you can speak of a time when George Micheal and Micheal Jackson were cool

- if you ever owned a Nintendo, a gameboy and a sony walkman

- if you played snake and brickbuilder on your computer

- if you ever owned a dot matrix printer

- when you couldn't imagine an Oscar or Grammy award ceremony without Billy Crystal hosting

- when you remember a time Woody Allen had not yet become a creepy old man and Oprah just had a few hundred million dollars

- if you remember when people used to say "Can we look it up on that internet thing" instead of "google it, bitch"

- when being an Indian tourist in a foreign land meant being asked about "where you park those damn elephants?" or "Is snake charming a high income profession?" or "You mean to say you have electricity in India?"

- if your angst filled teenage days were provided a soundtrack by the music of Linkin Park and Korn

- if you had a huge collection of Simpsons memorabilia

- when you remember a time that music channels used to play only music

- if you used ICQ and IRC chat to connect with all your friends

- if you ever thought that an Indian winning the booker prize was a big deal

- you used to have two words for your friends and teachers (a reference only wwe fans would understand)

- your first cellphone was as big and heavy as a brick

- if you remember the controversy caused by that episode of Seinfeld when they talked about "masturbation" (without actually using the word) for the first time on prime time television

- if you remember the pre-K Jo-ed Shah Rukh Khan and a moderately angry Amitabh Bachchan with real black hair

- if you remember when there was no Gmail and your hotmail account only had 2.5 MB storage

- if you had a huge collection of Archie, TinTin and Asterix & Obelix Comics

- you thank your lucky stars that you were not born at an age when harry potter came to life

- you're a fan of David E Kelly shows

- if you ever thought that reality shows were just a passing fad

- if you've hummed MC Hammer songs

- if you remember dancing to "Everybody by Backstreet boys" when you were really, really, really drunk ... i mean reallllly drunk!!

- when you remember paying for music

- your fist blog was your diary

- if you've ever "chilled out" or made someone "talk to you hand" or exchanged wasssssuuupppppp's with your friends

Saying Goodbye

"You need to go out a little" he said. "You can't stay with me the whole day".

"I can. I don't want to be anywhere else but here". I told him.

He looked at me and smiled. He really did not want me to leave.

"Will you promise me something?", he asked me.

"What?", I inquired.

"That you will love me no matter what. That even when I grow old, start losing my memory and appear haggard & wilted compared to the young ones, you will still love me". I could feel that he was scared. My heart ached for him.

"I promise to be by your side for as long as I shall live", I assured him.

He sighed.

"I need another promise", he said, looking away from me.

"What now?", I said, in a mock-irritated tone.

"If I .... cease to function one day,.." he said carefully picking his words, "you will find someone else. You will not grieve over me. And you will give away parts of my body to those who need them. So that I can live another life through them".

I didn't answer.

"Promise me", he demanded.

I nodded my head. It was like acknowledging the elephant in the room. I sighed.

I didn't have enough strength to look up and face him.

"Get the new model to replace me. The one you had your eye on", he told me, half in seriousness, half in jest.

"No one can take your place. You're special. You will always have a place in my heart", I told him.

I meant that and I wanted him to know that.

He then appeared to go into a long slumber.

We knew what was coming. The virus had taken over him. It was just a matter of time.

I thought of all the time we has spent together. All those times we shared a good laugh, those times when he bore the brunt of my anger to relive me of my stress, those long Saturday afternoons we spent playing games with each other. Those winter evenings which we passed reading books and listening to my choice of music and all the good and bad movies we saw together.

I still remember everything like it was yesterday.

We tried all that we could to keep him alive. To make him live another day, to witness one more sunset.

However, the virus was too strong for him to survive it.

Then , suddenly, in a flash, he was gone. Gone forever.




That's when I knew that my favorite computer had processed it's last binary digit.