It’s quite understandable and very fine if a true fan personally remembers the birth and death anniversaries of his most favourite artists and wishes to post, write about them on those special occasions.
But just imagine, if a young person is doing a job in a media publication or portal and is given a complete excel sheet of Birth-days and Death-days of all known artists of Hindi Cinema, with the assigned duty of purposefully posting, tweeting and writing about each one of them as a regular ritual almost daily.
It will certainly enhance his database.
But just think what will happen to that one individual in only a few weeks and how one simple excel sheet will largely kill his emotions or sensitivity to feel for all the blessed stalwarts who are no more with us and have departed for their heavenly abode.
I am sharing this, as that happened with me personally during my first professional association as a freelance writer when I was literally handed over an excel sheet with all these details. The assignment was to write a short bio on every personality according to the upcoming birth and death anniversaries, to be posted as the very first post/tweet that morning on the reputed portal’s social networking accounts.
In need of money, I started doing it but couldn’t surpass even two and began thinking about it seriously because the assignment was killing something inside me as an emotional artist. But due to the financial constraint I was still not able to quit and was in two minds when an immediate instance hit me hard.
The same week, one of my most loved artists got a stroke and was put on ventilator with the doctors sounding worried. I was quite disturbed by the shocking news and was thinking about the same when I got a phone call from the portal and they asked me to prepare a good article for the artist in advance, since he was on ventilator and could be declared dead any moment from now.
The phone call kept echoing in my mind till long and I couldn’t take it at all. Within a few hours I called back and moved out of the paid-assignment, as I was not able to do it anymore.
Unfortunately that veteran artist died in the next few days and the entire nation felt the trauma as a national loss.
However there was no flood of immediate tweets/posts or personal notes/articles on the internet because in that time period, the Orkut was dying fast, FB/Twitter was slowly gaining their ground and Instagram had just been launched with many more platforms not even in existence. Moreover Android phones were also quite new and the people were still into the process of shifting onto the new mobile technology.
It all had become the past but I sadly got reminded of those experiences yet again a day before, when two of my most loved and adored artists said their final good bye losing their individual fight with a fatal disease.
The entire social networking erupted with immediate declarations, responses of Rest In Peace, short/long posts, pictures, articles (and even edited-videos) within minutes (or a few hours) as if they were just waiting for it to happen and were having everything already ready with them in their digital folders.
That moment I truly realized that all these people are surely not doing any writing jobs for any publications or web-portals. They are not in any way assigned or bound to immediately report or post or make a video about a death of an artist as their official duty.
But then why they are still doing it in a rushing manner as if in a race to do it first, before anyone else does it in their friend circle?
What is this madness of declaring a death and paying a tribute first on the social networks madly running towards your phone to post it with RIP?
No doubt, there ought to be many genuinely sad fans too mourning the sudden death of their beloved artists. But will a genuine fan rush towards his phone after knowing about the demise of his favourite icon?
If No - then why even the real fans are doing it so insanely?
Why we all have become so interested in posting about a death immediately, making it a kind of achievement on the social network?
Hate to use this word, but there seems to be some kind of ‘unseen pleasure’ gained by posting/tweeting about a death, before anyone else in the circle? And I am not even mentioning the disrespectful last moment hospital pictures and videos shot by an insider, proudly shared by many to show their sources.
Honestly, this is really disturbing as this proves that such mad rush of posting about DEATHS in seconds or minutes (and then returning back to the usual posts in a few hours) has actually KILLED our emotions, sensitivity or the ability to deeply feel for a loss of a friend, an icon or a beloved artist.
In reality it will take hours and days to bear or rather accept the news of such deaths around, going completely numb.
But it’s really astonishing to study that we don’t even take an hour, but just minutes and even seconds to post about a DEATH and then quickly move on to the usual posts, even if it’s about the icon we loved the most.
Why we have started doing it with such mad rush?
Is it just because we have a following on these social networks, whom we feel like informing at the earliest, exactly like we inform them about a must-watch film?
Is it because we would look like Uninformed or feel like LEFT OUT, if we don’t immediately post about a death on our wall or timeline?
OR
Is it because that’s an opportunity to gain maximum hits/likes, along with proudly showcasing that we knew a lot about the icon and his rare, lesser known films or uncredited short appearances not known to the majority?
In short, though many would like to strongly deny, but it’s actually all about Me, Myself and My site/wall/timeline and not really about the departed soul to be straight.
And this is a BRUTAL FACT - whether one is willing to accept or not!
On a related note, this frankly reminds me of those times when we used to be in our early teenage and very keenly studied the forced acts of many female relatives coming to console the family members on a death in the family.
We would always be there in a corner to witness how these ladies used to come, silently stepping out of their rickshaw, auto or car and suddenly erupting with loud cries while entering the tent outside the house or near the Gurdwara. For a few minutes they used to cry so loudly to reach even the last person in the tent or hall making their presence felt and then quickly calmed down asking for a glass of water or tea. Their fake show lasted for just a few minutes making way for the next group of ladies to enter continuing with the same kind of loud cries.
On the other hand, the visiting men would rarely cry (almost none) as if they are very strong and the job of crying is only assigned to their ladies.
Watching these traditional rituals as teenagers, we could easily guess who was doing it as an act and who was seriously hurt by the death and felt for the loss from heart.
But then, the same cannot be concluded looking at the immediate, short-long and pictorial posts and videos, surprisingly written/posted within the few minutes/hours of the official announcement of a sad demise as a mere informative share.
God knows how on earth we get such instant energy, feeling the urgency of posting about a death in just a few minutes and returning back to the routine posts in hours as if nothing awful had happened and it was simply a tragic news about an icon.
Thinking about it, I am still wondering that do many people really rush towards their phone after hearing such news instead of just seizing for a few hours lovingly remembering their beloved icon?
Again the blunt truth is - YES they do.
And that’s how this social networking has severely affected our ability to stop for a while, emotionally feel and live such moments with a genuine depth and belongingness.
As a matter of fact, we have really forgotten the enlightening art of ‘Stopping for a few hours’ before registering a reaction.
Moreover, the birth anniversaries of other renowned icons falling on the very next day, quickly make us forget the recent death in a few hours.......... because we feel like posting for that too continuing our participation in the social networking race.
So just a few hours is the time span left in our minds to shift from mourning to celebration! And we don't even realize how this instant robotic shift has seriously hurt our emotional ability to feel the depths.
Revealing about myself,
I gracefully accept my inability to immediately write short or long notes along with his/her pictures, when a beloved departs.
I certainly haven’t got that capability and I am just not able to do that.
Because for me, every friend or icon departing before myself leaves me an important message to STOP and think it over.
In other words, every such death rings a timely alarm, reminding me, that my death will also be coming ahead sooner or later.
So I should be aware and remain prepared with love, gratitude
and
HIS BLESSINGS
(Note : The above expression is all about what I had in mind in the last couple of days in general and is not about anyone in particular)
