Within the Mask.

I was going through my old CD collection today and i came across my old Michael Jackson Video collection of the Album "History". I played one of my favorite videos, that of the MTV music awards 1998 where he had given an excellent performance. After the end of his part of the show the crowd had gone altogether hysterical. There were shots of his sister Diana Jackson nodding with appreciation of her brother's performance.

A brother who had been a victim of almost every bite of fame, own and others. To begin with he had the pigmentation of his skin changed so that he would not be discriminated as Black. Hours of practice gave him the gift of perfectness which he exploited until his body broke down. His own personal life went for a jump with two divorces (atleast that i know of). He was then branded as a pedophile by people who accused of him sleeping with their own children. Today he is nowhere. He has filed for bankruptcy and no one remembers him, until maybe one day when he is dead.

Closer home.
An armed forces officer while doing his duty charged for the rape of a mother and her daughter. He is now proven innocent by DNA tests. One should consider the pain that he would have undergone during the time when he was taken as accused. His family, his friends, his unit would all have been affected. Today he is no more charged for the crimes he was accused of. But the punishment has already been conferred. For the rest of his life he and his family will remain branded.

Two kids in a Delhi school experimenting with each other. One records it with the camera in his phone. It spreads like wild fire all over the country. (I got access to it myself but could not get myself to watch it....come on they are just kids man!). Once again all the unsolicited media attention. The parents cannot leave home coz the media follows. The children cannot study in school coz nobody wants to sit with them. The teachers cannot teach coz they now belong to a school with no morals. Good lord...just because two kids did not know the consequence of their actions. The action? They recorded their actions. Voyeurism made them famous, other than that its an open fact about sex in schools. We only chose to be blind.
Death of innocence.

A girl is rushing towards stardom. She choses the most easiest and the most common method, sex. One of the rungs in the ladder records it. Viola – Miss Jammu case. Now forensics say its not her. But who cares. As long as she is concerned she is as good as dead. No one will marry her. Family will not forgive her. The world wont forget her. Another living death.

How much of us is dead when we are alive. Is time the healer or is time the killer. We have more access to each others' personal lives than two years back. At this rate one day we will live in glass houses. Are we to blame for ourselves or are we to blame others. Maybe its both. Mans quest for more, whether its for fame or for information, will always be peppered with sprinkles of shame to himself.

But in the end only those survive who have dignity and honour. For only they will not fall into the depths of shame, because their heads are held high and their gaze towards the skies.