Fanfare of Fanatic fans

April 12th, 2006.

It was just another sleepy afternoon in the office as I checked the plop in my mobile phone. The text message sent by a friend read ‘Dr. Rajkumar is no more’. Soon news started pouring in from various sources. The incident happened at around 1350 that day and mobile phone networks were already jammed by 1430. Some of us ran out of the office early that day as disturbance was expected in some parts of the city. So while I drove back safely home except that some huge crowds had gathered near his house there were already stray incidents of violence. Mobile networks were already jammed and radio channels grieved the loss with condolence messages throughout.

By evening there were cases of vehicles being set on fire; petrol bunks burned; and glass buildings being stoned. All shops and commercial establishments were shut down. Life was basically under a stand still. Most people were under house arrest. All this for the death of a thespian who died peacefully of cardiac arrest at the ripe old age of 78 years.

The next day was even more eventful. The actor was given a State funeral and the day was declared a ‘bandh’, which meant a forced holiday for everybody. We stayed at home and watched live updates of the situation outside of frenzied mobs destroying anything destroyable in sight. 100 vehicles were set on fire; hundreds of people were injured and 8 people even died. My house being quite close to the epicenter; we witnessed some of this annihilation later in the evening.

Dr. Rajkumar was one person who was never disliked by anybody. He was a stalwart in the Kannada film industry bagging one out of every four movies ever made. His flawless character, disarming looks, staggering talent topped with genuine humility made him the poster boy of Karnataka filmdom. Being very minimally educated only up to fourth grade he spoke such chaste Kannada comparable to the caliber of a litterateur. The masses simply loved him and he became a household name.

With all due respects to the man I fail to comprehend the reactions caused by the frantic mobs in the city. It was mobocracy that ruled. The man has gone very serenely to his heavenly abode after living a fulfilling life and the entire city is held to ransom by some few thousand callow youngsters supposedly mourning. In grief there are tears and sorrow, but the reaction to the incident was arson and pelting stones. When the entire city was arm-twisted like this all we could do was glare at the TV screen and comment on the erratic behaviour. During the airing of this episode while there was some honest tears majority of the offenders did not seem to have an iota of sorrow on their faces. What was shocking was the discernable excitement in their frenzied waves to TV cameras.

These anti social elements seemed to be in the age group of 16 to 25. Most of them looked uneducated or under educated; unemployed or under employed. All of them seemed to be deriving some kind of sadistic pleasure out of destroying all that seemed obvious signs of prosperity and all those desirous ‘somethings’ that they cannot lay their hands on.

The day will pass on maybe doing pending laundry and talking about it animatedly at tea. However let us not ignore the deep-rooted socio psychological reasoning behind this. An ageing actor dying was just an alibi to all that happened. The mobs were simply venting out their pent up remorse against the so-called signs of affluence. Be it sure signs of indulgence such as Café Coffee Days, shopping malls, multiplexes or the quick revenue churners such as the Microsofts and the Infosyses – none were spared the pelting stones and the hurtling canes. The police was definitely out numbered reason being most of the forces were being deployed in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala for the upcoming elections.

Is this mob mentality just an off shoot of the current socio economic set up that we live in or the deeply embedded insecurities of that strata of the society who has tasted blood and but cannot have the meat? Is it a symptom of the skewed economic development we are witnessing? Is it a bi product of the widening income disparities?

One theory even goes on to attribute these crores of rupees loss to a political drama staged by people who have vested interests in tainting the government in power. All said and done the delinquents have nothing to lose. As usual the penny scrounging taxpayer will have to dig deeper into his pockets and insurance companies will act like shock absorbers. The anti outsourcing lobby has more reason to buttress their against doing business with such a highly ‘unstable country’.

As I watched the story being telecast on CNN with shameful eyes I wondered the next day why the bomb blasts in Jama Masjid are not condemned so vehemently.

Two days later life bounced back to normal. As I set out for work along with my mom we saw charred remains of cars, buses and gas stations and wondered where all the thousands of brutes have vanished. As the sea of traffic surged on we realized that they are just scattered droplets here and there. When they come together they are able to prove the right of might. I shuddered to think if such an unscheduled, unplanned for activity can cause such a quantum of destruction; then planned and programmed activity will wipe out the entire fragile economy.