ZAIRA, YOU SHOULD'VE QUIETLY GONE

Before Jaya Bachchan assumed her husband’s famous surname, she was already a superstar. Her husband was nowhere near the superstardom. But, once she married to him, she chose to focus on her family… “That’s where I am needed now,” she said, “That’s where I belong.”

Well, those were not the days of Twitter and social media. Even TV was just a toddler in India. So, mostly through some film magazines and the word of mouth, we all came to know that our favourite ‘Guddi’ would not be seen in the films anymore… at least, not in the near future. It took some eighteen long years for Jaya Bachchan to come back to films. By now, of course, she couldn’t be a heroine. But, she acted in a movie here and a movie there…

Meanwhile, her famous husband was going through his own inner churning… Following Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassination, her son, Rajiv Gandhi, had become our Prime Minister. It was an emotional moment for Amitabh Bachchan. Who was a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi. He took an instinctive plunge into politics to help his friend. Within a few years, it turned out to be a disastrous decision… When Rajiv Gandhi was caught in the whirlpool of Bofors scandal, Amitabh got dragged into it… People started accusing him of swindling money and his image was mercilessly tarnished… He was continuously hounded by the hostile media… and, finally, he decided to come out of what he colourfully described as a ‘cesspool’!

Amitabh Bachchan was hounded again for calling politics a ‘cesspool’.  But, it made no difference to him… “I do not belong to politics,” Amitabh declared and started rebuilding his image in the film world slowly and steadily… “That’s where I belong,”  he concluded.

Yes, those were not the days of Twitter, you see… Trolling was almost an alien word!

In the thick of Vietnam War, the US government was compulsorily making its citizens to serve in the unpopular war. It was mandatory, and, if one refused to serve, he or she would have to serve a jail term.

But, one famous man refused and was prepared to jeopardize his stupendous boxing career and go to jail. Casius Clay had just converted into Islam and assumed his new name, Muhammad Ali. It was the peak of his boxing stardom… He knew what would happen if he said ‘No’ to serving in Vietnam. But, he did exactly that!

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” he had explained two years earlier. “And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put (no) dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them - poor people? Just take me to jail.”

Ali added: “It is in the light of my consciousness as a Muslim minister and my own personal convictions that I take my stand in rejecting the call to be inducted. I find I cannot be true to my beliefs in my religion by accepting such a call. I am dependent upon Allah as the final judge of those actions brought about by my own conscience.”

Why am I telling these stories here, in this Post?

Zaira Wasim, the beautiful and talented actress in the movies ‘Dangal’ and ‘Secret Superstar’, is in the news presently… What’s the reason? A couple of days ago, the 18-year-old had made public her decision to quit Bollywood citing, that her religious faith did not make her comfortable working in films, anymore… “I do not belong there,” yes, the young actress said.

Well, the next thing we all know is that Zaira has been crucified!

An 18-year-old is judged so mercilessly!

And, by whom? For what?

Who are we to judge her?

Who am I?

When I was a kid, they kept reminding me - ‘The Judgment Day will come’.

No one waits for the ‘Judgment Day to come’, anymore…  

It is already here!

Having said this, I say this, too: “Zaira, you should've quietly gone. All explanations are useless, you see. For, your enemies do not believe them; and your friends do not need them. Go, the dust will settle down, anyway.”

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Amazon.com/ Magzter