MJ -THE KING OF POP - THE DOYEN OF APARTHEID

           Out of the blue,I found myself missing MJ just so badly. And I played out his trademark number "Black or White" . And somehow, the video appeared very different -- much more intense , more moving , more meaningful. I moved on , but the lines "it don't matter if you're black or white"   kept on coming back , forcing me to feel the great guys's words each time more closely, more meaningfully.

            Truly, he was a great legend, not just for the music chat he created , but also the cause for which he used his music. Not all social hurt is intentional. As I see it , most of it is a result of ignorance, petty selfishness, cheap fun or more generally humans falling prey to their weaker instincts. And it is actually unimaginable how far this can go. A glance back at the past, and its not Herculean to prepare a list of such social evils  ---- slavery,apartheid,the Holocaust, terrorism ....


           To me , until yesterday apartheid was just a topic I had studied to please my history teachers. Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were just great men associated with apartheid. This is where the genius of MJ lies. I watched him , I listened to him just for the sheer thrill his moves evoke in me, but the theme of his music actually proded me into deep thought on Apartheid and those great leaders, Mandela and Gandhiji.

               It was the catalyst which activated my thoughts, my emotions into this direction. And believe me, the emotional surge  - as I went into Apartheid - was enormous. To see an entire race of men putting down, belittling , humiliating - another race just because of a sheer stroke of luck which they thought put them in a superior position was unimaginable  - it filled me with rage . And to see that entire race walk away  remorselessly, heads held high, and to colour their pervertness under some bullshit rationale- it was for a sec unfathomable. And it is to voyagers like Mandela, Gandhiji, Martin Luther and MJ that today we have givem more than back to Apartheid. And today as I find Obama as the First Citizen of the World, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington bagging Academies, the Williams ruling women's tennis, Akon , Beyonce and an entire generation topping American music charts-- it invigorates me. And reinstates my belief in the World. and my Maker. If you journey long enough , truly enough , the Lord's light smiles on you . And that to me is the reward of all great struggles -- to restore, reinstate, and to strengthen faith in Life, faith in the Lord, faith in his Creation .