Death of a legend, rebirth of a legacy

Yesterday, the Kannada matinee idol, the great legend Dr.Rajkumar breathed his last after many days hospitalization, owing to poor health. The news had spread like anything that people had left office earlier fearing riots, causing traffic jams all over the city. My company buses wisely stuck his picture in the front and thus escaping from stone pelting. As I got down at my stop in BTM, I wondered for a minute if I was in the right place. I have never ever seen the BTM main road in such an empty state. I was sure that the next day was gonna be a nightmare for many in Bangalore.

It happened as such. Not even his fans.. His ‘abhimaanigalu’ were always a decent lot. Some useless morons used the opportunity and created chaos all over the city. One of my collegeue said “Don’t talk in Tamil today…. U won’t reach home safely”. The small talkies in my area removed all Tamil horadings and stuck a poster of an old Dr.Raj movie. God only knows what Tamilians’ hand is, in the natural death of the actor.

From Wednesday night 10 PM all channels were blacked out one by one and on Thursday morning there were no channels except for Kannada channels telecasting his funeral. All big heads like Rajinikanth, Saroja Devi, Jayanthi, Vishnu Vardhan, Ravichandran were present at the mourning spot. The body was placed in Kanteerva stadium for people to pay final respects. But things went out of control when the mad crowd mobbed like anything and made a mess of all arrangements. Upon that there was not sufficient police force to keep the situation in control… Tyres, vehicles, petrol bunks, buses etc were burnt and shops and complexes were stone pelted. Why should they remain in good condition when Dr. Raj is dead?

All the shops including hotels were closed in my area. Worst affected were the bachelors staying in rooms and with friends. Everyone was forced to starve for the whole day until in the evening bakeries opened with mad rush. Of course everyone deserves such punishment, because Dr.Raj is dead…

Rajkumar’s three sons were present at funeral. They were pleading to the public and crying in the mike to stay in control. But, no one was ready to listen. The funeral was the worst one that could happen to a big actor like him. It was totally messed up with crowd rioting outside burial ground and once his body was brought, it was difficult even to take it till the burial place.

Final rights were completed amongst the crowds pull and push and all his family members ran away dropping him in the ditch. After that people present were throwing flowers, colors and soil all over the place making it look like a battle field. Yes, we love him so much that we will not even allow his corpse to rest in peace.

And one worst thing is, people here clap in a funeral. I have never seen in my life such a thing happening in any mourning. When his body was laid down in the stadium everyone raised their hands and clapped. And when it was put in burial ditch, again everyone raised their hands and clapped!!

All IT majors were on compulsory shut down except few BPOs which had utmost care for customers. A total loss of 100 crores is reported and more than that Bangalore’s reputation is totally gone in the eyes of world with media covering all these incidents. So what, Dr.Raj is dead!!!!

It was like a sequel to the riots and infernos that happened when Dr.Raj was held as captive by Verappan. Thank God, had he expired at that time, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka would have become like India and Pakistan. Now the legend is dead and the legacy of riots is reborn….