MJ’s stunning feat

At the age of five, when little Michael Jackson, first appeared on stage with his elder brothers at a local fairground in Gary, Indiana, few would have guessed that, in less than 2 decades, he would become the biggest name the world of entertainment ever had. It seemed as if God had personally taken time off to groom this boy, out of sheer curiosity on how it felt to be the most loved being on the planet.
Hence to watch his memorial service unfold on television last night was not only surreal, but a tad unrealistic too. MJ reserved his most stunning feat for the penultimate moment of his life — internet connections, the pulse of the modern globalised world, came crashing down minutes after his death. For his million (if not a couple of billion) devotees on both sides of the Atlantic, moments after he bid farewell in the most unassuming fashion, the world just did not exist for them without their hero — Michael Jackson. The sense of time had become meaningless, the thought of his loss unbearable. But the irony of the last 10 days can barely be exaggerated. Even though his less than six-feet frame was securely locked in a $ 25,000 gold plated casket, the world has never loved him more. His music, which remained muted for more than a decade, has suddenly exploded to hit unprecedented levels. From five-year olds to octogenarians, the world is kowtowing to the jewel who they now realise has been lost forever. Replete with contradictions, MJ has outlived all expectations. But irrespective of what a handful of critics may want to remember MJ as, the truth is that it could take many generations for even a pale shadow of his true self to walk the Earth. One of the performers yesterday publicly said that probably God needed him more than us, that’s why he left so early. Though it is painful that he is gone, maybe we can console ourselves with this thought!