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Hero
worshipping has its roots in the history of
civilizations all over the world. I had a
terrible time in my school remembering the
greatness and not-so-greatness of the kings of
great and not-so-great kingdoms, their rise and
downfall. The political, social, cultural and
instantaneous reasons for the bloody and
not-so-bloody wars and revolutions, in their
chronological order. There were three
significant wars in Panipat alone to remember.
And then the freedom movement. No other country
would have had so many national heroes as this
great country of ours. We have accommodated
everyone; every section has its representation
among the freedom fighters. The world must be
jealous of us. Many countries got rid of
colonial imperialism with pretty less number of
freedom fighters. How unfortunate of them! I
wonder if the schools in such countries have
history in their curriculum.
We don't talk ill of dead. If someone talks ill
of you, it's a proof that you are alive. If
everybody is hailing you as a great human being,
try passing through a wall and you will succeed.
We reciprocate greatness with gratefulness. Oh,
the enthusiasm in celebrating anniversaries,
centenaries, the unveiling of statues, the
renaming of roads and colonies, giving speeches,
the media factor! All at the expense of
taxpayers (without being grateful to them).
In the frenzy of celebrating the birthday of the
great leader, we pay less attention (and money)
to the centenary celebration of the not-so-great
leader born on the same day. This upsets some
grateful admirers of the latter. The greatness
of a leader is measured by the number of books
written on him, the number of movies based on
his life, the money spent on the commemorations.
So much we read and so little do we learn.
We have two nominations for Oscar this year. One
is a tribute to the revolutionary leaders and
the other is a tribute to none other than
Gandhi. Both movies are good time-pass movies.
Both remind us of our history; appeal us to be
more grateful to our leaders. Both the movies
fail miserably when they try to cross their
"time-pass-ness" by proposing a solution to the
current problems. Both movies are hit and
getting applause from all sections.
It is so difficult to see Dashrath Manjhi,
Abhayanand or Sudha Varghese as a Gandhian
solution to current problems, but so easy to see
our Bollywood hero as Gandhi-incarnate. Our hero
"copies" (actually remixes) Gandhi. Copying is
the best form of adulation er.. gratefulness,
after all. Let us write books on Dashrath Manjhi,
add his name to the list of 'great sons of
Bihar', felicitate awards to him, and on his
death, declare him a "great human being" and
then use his name to get Manjhi votes.
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