God Among Us

“Have it beta it’s his birthday”, my mom told to me and when I uttered, ‘ya he is 71 now’. She angrily said that they don’t age. I and my mom were talking about the god among us, the god of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan while having Laddo on occasion of his birthday. 

In our country, there are gods who are found inside stone structures and worshiped and then there are those who are found on screens and cricket field and are cherished. 

India is a country that has for a long time cherished few people that they have even been called as demi- gods. These demi-gods are born out of their profession unlike the mythical gods. These demi-gods came in existence with coming of modern moving picture techniques. The first and foremost know demi-god among us is surely the person who was known as Kaka - Rajesh Khanna, defined what we call stardom. Girls would marry him with his picture and kept the dust into their lockets where he landed his feet. That what’s we do when we come to know the certain god landed his or her feet here. As for the south, the names like M.G. Ramachandra and NTR were so popular that they were given almost equal to god status. The people in the south worshiped them along with cherishing their talent in arts. 

People for centuries have adapted someone as their idols to lead an inspired life. In doing so the name changes with ages and in modern age, we have two greatest from movie world and the god himself from the cricketing world. As for the hindi cinema lover no one is mightier than Mr. Bachchan. Everything he does becomes a culture, be it movies or Kaun banega Croreparti. Thousands of people across country prayed for him when he got hurt while shooting for a movie. People don’t just follow what he does, they live it.

As for the South cinema lovers, even if Rajnikanth sneezes that’s an act of god. People just don’t follow it or live it. They worship him and whatever he does. They can’t tolerate anything against him, not even in the virtual reality. People even keep the ticket of Rajnikanth’s cinema till the time it stays in theatres. The status is so much high that he is also worshiped in stone structures at a place or two. 

Now the god himself, the cricketing god. Anything said to define his greatness falls short in words. Like lord Krishna he started his leela right from the childhood and the weapon became the cricketing bat. Other people in the profession started having nightmare about him. A very prominent player of cricket even said that “I have seen god and he bats at no 4 for India”. 

There are others who have the talent and belong to the same profession such as cinema or cricket and they are loved too but these three have only achieved the status where they are worshiped by people all around the world. The arguments may also be placed that they do what many do and take money for it too. In fact, these are among the highest paid person in their profession respectively. So what makes them stand apart from others? 

The biggest common factor about them is their ethical way of being a leader in their profession. Other than talent, the calmness and dedication has let these people attain the status to be worshiped. If we look at history, Rajesh Khanna was replaced by new ones because he lived like king and hence got conquered. I am not saying that he did not had the calmness in him but according to historians, he lost ethical quotient. These three are king in themselves but they are people’s champion as well. They do what many people do but their personal behavior has led them to become the Gods among us. Having talent for something doesn't make one great among the best, what makes you great is being humble about it. In India you get worshiped. As far as the mass worship is concerned these profession gets maximum exposure.

It doesn’t matter if they grow old or retire. The stature remains the same. People love them, follow them, cherish them and above all worship them for what they do or have done.

- Ajit Kumar Lal