Rajkumar’s death and Rioting Bangalore

I discover that we Indians have an unique way of mourning a death.

This is how an average Bangalorean (who also happens to be a rioter) must have thought:

“Oh! God! Rajkumar died. I am angry! He died a natural death, so what? When Indira Gandhi was assassinated, they had their revenge - they burnt up 4000 Sikhs. Even I am entitled to such a revenge! There has to be someone responsible for our beloved Rajkumar. Whom can I blame? Let me roam the streets of Bangalore and find out!

Ah! There is this small hotel serving food to workers. I do know that these workers and bachelor engineers do not have kitchens and eat out daily. So what? Do I care? This storekeeper has no respect for our great Rajkumar, our Kannada leader. He has to close down his shop, otherwise we will break the chairs, tables and break glasses. Ah! he has agreed to close, but that is too easy. I will bring down his shop anyway.

Ah! I am satisfied, having broken so many chairs, and beaten up the waiters and the owner, I am just getting started. I am still angry though- angry at this world; Angry for being miserable and poor; Of course, I know that I don’t stick to one job for more than a month- I am lazy, and spend most of the time at local store smoking cigarette, spitting paan, teasing girls, and watching cricket game at nearby electronic store.

Rajkumar died. I will miss him. In fact, everyone should miss him. If they do not miss him, I will make sure they miss him. I will teach them by torching their cars and stores. I know that he hasn’t acted in a very long time. But who cares? He was a great actor, and he died, and I want my revenge.

Let me go see his body. Man! What a big crowd! And this police is trying to stop me from seeing my beloved leader? Let’s beat the shit out of them. Oooh! They started to fire at us. I am furious now. Let’s vent our anger somewhere else. Let’s get into this five star hotel and burn it up. Yeah! Maul up these foreign tourists! How dare they enjoy staying at a nice hotel while we are mourning? Burn these nice vehicles as well. Good! I like it. I can go home now, and break few things up on my way. Who knows, when I would get this freedom again?”.
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I saw a news item that says Rajkumar’s eyes were donated to two different people. There is a good chance that they might stand for elections and one of them could become a chief minister. After all, they have the same ‘vision’ and ‘foresight’ that Rajkumar had for Kannada cause.