PXylem

I can’t forget those days when I was absolutely crazy for Michael. Those days were silent, intimate days of my adolescence. When I first saw little Michael singing as a member of the Jackson 5 in a show telecasted by MTV, he seemed to me a precocious performer. I was enchanted by his black loveliness and elegant smile. My fondness gradually took the shape of strong fascination for Michael thereafter when I saw more of his earliest videos of solo performance. Then a time came when my young adolescent heart started yearning for his nearness. I cried for him, I dreamt him, screamed to be with him practically. I felt for some time, I am in love; so deep, profound, endless but it all halted when I met another crazy young heart equally in love, in fact more, with this inimitable icon. I consoled my broken heart that I am just a fan.

I was shocked when I got the news of his demise. My heart broke and felt wayward to believe the truth. How early he left us, all crazy fans who still hoped to see more of him, his wild performance and his sweet pleasing presence in this mortal world.

Michael was my first attraction who inspired my emotions to unfold its wings. He was the first fascination who introduced me to the world of western music. I will be his crazy fan forever. I loved you Michael.


By Pranatiy Saikia

Alas! Jade Goody bade farewell to all of us, who loved her and also who despised her and left the world forever. The deadly clutches of Cancer didn’t spare her life and sent her to doom on last Sunday. The news of her demise shocked me and saddened me equally. I really moved by her untimely death. I saw the pictures of her last days in the newspaper, when she was suffering with pain due to the disease. Yet the smile on her face was so alive and moving. I was looking at her picture attentively as I was shocked and I could sense the grief concealed with it. I was deeply touched when I read the news that she left two little sons behind her and to provide them bright future, she even signed up lucrative deals with TV networks to permit them to film her last days.

Why the news of her death saddened me? Why it affected me so much that I took my pen to write few lines on her? I don’t know anything about Goody as a person! I know her only through news related to the episode of her nasty race row with her ex- housemate Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother in 2007. 

When it happened in 2007, I was working in a newspaper and for me it was just one of the ordinary news. It didn’t bother me much, though the issue became a burning topic of discussion and controversy. It also made Goody a controversial figure and a subject of criticism. She was hated by most of us for her ill treatment to Shilpa. 

She was despised for her racial remarks. But neither I hated Goody for her unscrupulousness nor I moved by the tears of Shilpa, who is one of my favourite actresses (her smile n figure cast spell on me). Of course, her triumph made me delighted.

Nevertheless, I would say the news of Goody’s death touched my human heart and a woman’s psyche. I am sad for her mother who lost her young daughter. I am remorseful for those two little sons who lost their mother so young. I am thankful to that man who married her lately to support her sons and give her solace in her last days.

I believe, in the last moments of her life, it might have become apparent to Goody that we all are equal before Death! Death is the equalizer and it doesn’t differentiate people on any trivial basis. Nature is above all.

I pay my tribute to her and pray God to give peace to the departed soul.