Superstar Rajkumar

When I was in Bangalore as a summer intern in GE in summer of 2002, a little incident happened. I and one of my friends were walking back from MG Road (where else?) towards Shivaji Nagar bus stand when we heard sounds of drums. At first instance, I thought probably a puja of some deity was being concluded. When I turned back I saw a huge crowd dancing aroung some statue/picture placed on a trailer (the kind they attach to a tractor to transport things). We took a corner and waited. The trailer actually had a huge cut out of moustached male. I had no idea, so I asked one of the person. He answered, "Superstar Jeetendra". "Jeetendra?..hmm" I said. "SUPERSTAR JEETENDRA!!" came the threatening reply. That was the end of our conversation, but I was like, "what the f?"

So when I read about the riots that ensued in Bangalore after the death of Kannada actor Rajkumar, I caught myself smiling. From news and blogs, it looks like there was madness all around. Sample this, a mall placed nets all around to protect its glasses. It is really difficult for any sane person to understand why the hell something like this could have happened. This can truly happen only in India. Even the Pakistanis get a reason to kill each other and destroy property. We cant even get a reason.

Really a madhouse.