Sunday Driver | Fame and Infamy
Today I woke up with a start. A sound faint yet loud enough for my ears came from across the building. Voices that were screaming, God only knows for what. What there a fight? Perhaps. On a Sunday? Which to me is one of the most peaceful days, especially when one looks at the roads from 7am to 9am.
Why do people fight? Why do people confront someone in anger with a raised voice and perhaps with darker intentions spitting fire from eyes. I sit with my coffee and try to calm myself down from the anxiety that fills me at the thought of loud voices and the source of it; fight.
Thus, my thoughts wander off to a few of my friends whom I have seen sometimes (and yes, it is really just sometimes), though it should have been more often raging in frustration and anger. They rant out at the way the people who don't know them, don't know about their life, write or talk on a "news" piece with authority and conviction. The infamy of being a celebrity is taking in all the muck slung at you for being one; the flip side of being famous.
Fame is like that flame that illuminates the surrounding but leaves one in silhouette. One can make out who it is, but what the person is all about is not known. It is an illusion; a shadow of the real person, standing upright.
One sees the picture, even the reflection is intact, still what one sees facing the camera is perhaps only fraction of what one sees in the mirror. The complete picture despite both the side present in the still is incomplete A story told through eyes of someone looking in. It leaves a lot to interpretation. The real story can only be known to the person clicking the picture and the person facing the camera.
And then there are times when a bird comes and whispers in one's ears and one believes things that are captured to be real. But what is real? The bird, the picture or the story it tells? Here, it is simply the fact that the bird is comfortable with one person only and so, the person taking the picture had to employ means available to him to capture the bird's still. Fiction could be any number of interpretation one wants to make of this picture. Go ahead give it a shot.
That is what a celebrity goes through, the exposure that makes them a topic of conversation. I have had many a times been told by my neighbours of things that happen in the parking lot with my celebrity friends who live in the complex. A news channel coming during Diwali to take an interview. The roar of a bike when other celebrity friends visit them. Every movement, wanted and unwanted is noted and passed on. A face that is recognisable makes you familiar to a person whom you may have never met in your life.
One looks up wondering if all this is real. Are the stories one hears about oneself to be believed when one knows what the truth is. One just perhaps looks at some in amusement but there are times when the unreasonableness of it all gets to one. One looks up angrily at the very God who has given you so much and say, "Did I ask for this? I am just doing what I love to do. Entertain. Why am I being maligned?" And he smiles back and says, "Just flip the coin called fame and you will find your answer."
When this happens, when the brickbats and accusations start flying around, when names are being called; it is too late. Too late to turn back. Too late to ask why me? One just has to turn back and smile at the very people who enrage you. And say, "It is all in a day's work."
Should one bare all and show the lacerations? The answer is No. One just flips the coin back to the side that says FAME and smile at the infamy it brings with it. Let the camera capture the perfect persona or the imperfect persona as the case may be. The real celebrity is one within who shines when one feels satisfied at having done a job well.
The story I had to tell could only be substantiated by the pictures taken by Gorky M. Thank you for the inspiration, to be able to express in pictures what I wanted to say.
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