Lata Mangeshkar, Bharat Ratna recipient, recently passed away. She left a huge void that is impossible to fill. Many people came to her funeral to offer prayers including SRK. Today, am writing this post to exclusively talk about the trolling and bigotry that is on display. It is claimed by few that SRK spat on Lata Mangeshkar’s mortal remains.
How do I feel as an SRK fan?
Pained and disgusted. I don’t know why some people have so much hate for the person. The extreme love and extreme hate that SRK generates, sometimes baffles me. I know most of this hate stems from political reasons, but this political hate is sweeping minds of lot of people. For a true fan, SRK is the idea of love. He is the right guy who does the right thing, and hence deserves love in return. This is how we all have been brought up. That’s why we all connected to SRK. He was us.
What troubles me?
People are trolling a person who is paying homage to a departed soul. We weren’t always like that. We were positive people, by and large. We used to love more than hate or at least we used to value love more. Now, I think, we have become the opposite. We value hate more. We are so colored in our choices and judgements, that we have stopped thinking critically and with love. We simply get swayed with the ideology of hate and we don’t have the faculty to counter or reason it with love.
I can understand people not liking SRK’s acting, movies, or him as an individual but this hate knows no boundaries. Earlier we used to criticize but now we hate. Being respectful is cowardice now. Spewing venom is being expressive and being outspoken. Being good cannot be interpreted other than a weakness. We never give anyone benefit of doubt now. And what troubles me is that this hate is not only manufactured or agenda-driven, but also organic. This speaks volumes of how we are a hate loving society.
If I am walking down a road and I accidentally collide with someone, I say sorry, regardless of whose fault is it, because I know that everyone is walking down some path hurriedly. However, what I see now is that people don’t say sorry, they rather pick up a fight or abuse. I don’t know when we forgot giving people the benefit of doubt. It starts with at least not hating anyone if you don’t love them. It starts with prioritizing love or hate.
Who are these trolls?
SRK seems to be more comfortable with an ideology that is in departure to that of the ruling dispensation. Though he is not an outspoken political person but deep down no one is apolitical. And this is the reason why hate is being spread against him. And it is not about having an opinion that is different than SRK’s. Everyone can have an opinion and can agree or disagree, but the level of discourse or rather hate against anyone reflects how polarized we have become. Can we not step back, clean the slate, and think through?
What happened now?
As a society, we are made to believe that we need to cling on to some ideology to save us from some impending doom. We are made to believe that one ideology is correct and that the other one is wrong. And we create strong opinions based on that. This polarization is simply dividing us all. What I think is that we need to value people more than ideologies, so that we start loving each other more. And when we love each other, we accept our differences. And things start falling in place on their own. That’s what we need to do.