Last Christmas!

George Michael, the heartthrob of millions and the singer of the iconic 'Last Christmas', died on Christmas Day, 2016. 

There are many songs by him that have captured the hearts of millions of fans worldwide but 'Last Christmas' is a favorite of mine; I have listened to it hundreds of times and is always on my playlist. It is one of those anytime any season songs owing to its soft synth beats and mellifluous energetic singing. The song was by the band Wham! duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. Released in 1984, it stills remains fresh, simple and whistle worthy. 

The irony is that 'Last Christmas' is the biggest-selling single in UK chart history not to reach number one. There are some songs which are instantly likeable, very frothy and 'bubble gum' like. 'Last Christmas' is among the top of those. 

The video is very simple, shot in snow in Switzerland as George Michael goes on a skiing party with his ex-girlfriend who is now with someone else; hence the lyrics. The irony is that it is a 'sad song' without much of the sadness in the tune! It sounds like a 'happy' or 'jolly' song, but it is a sad song in reality. The pathos is so well built in the instantly likeable tune - where George dwells on his past with his girlfriend - that you end up doing the sing along, realising that it is a 'break-up' song only while the lyrics hit you! Sample this:

"Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
the very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears,
 I’ll give it to someone special"

As the song goes on, you realise that he wants to move on but is reluctantly doing so. I particularly love the tune when he goes "A face on a lover with a fire in his heart... A man undercover but you tore him apart"....it hits a peak. You don't realize that it is such a lengthy song (6 minutes and 45 seconds, to be precise) due to the tune and lively singing by George Michael. It is one for all seasons, why only Christmas?

The video for the song can be seen here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI

The song became one of the most played songs during the last weeks of December every year on all music channels, the word 'Christmas' and the picturisation in the snow playing a large  part in the airplay. 

The royalties received on the success of this single were donated to the Ethiopian famine in 1984.

It is indeed ironic that George Michael had to die on Christmas Day! 

Oh, what a classic!

Denuded, ripped and ravaged.....apocalypse at 150 kmph!

"kaalo'smi lokakshayakrit pravrddho

lokaan samahartum iha pravrttaH

rte'pi tvaam na bhavishyanti sarve

ye'vasthithaaH pratyaniikeShu yoddhaaH"

"I am time (or death),  the great one,  who causes decay of the worlds, working here for the destruction of the worlds. Even without you, all warriors present in the opposing army will not (always) be "

(Or, in short) "Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

- Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita

The last time a cyclone had hit Madras it was in 1994; I do not remember much about it, except that it was raining heavily with the wind blowing in all directions. I remember that i could not see anything from the first floor balcony of my house. This time, my being in Madras during the close was itself happenstance with my flight to Bombay being cancelled. On a day of heavy rain, the air traffic takes a hit. On a day when there is a cyclone, the flights get grounded, runways close and airport shuts down - what with the cyclone making a landfall on the city directly.

Everyone was waiting it out; there was no option anyway. The news bulletins on TV started since the morning - the cyclone was to hit that afternoon - warnings, evacuations, debates on how prepared we are. The rain had been intermittent the day before. 

And it did arrive, the hero of the season - the wind / gale or whatever you call it, starting with a gentle breeze and picking up steam thereafter. And how strong did it get! The rain started a drizzle, then a downpour and then it was water in all directions with the wind playing havoc. Power was suspended after prior intimation, as a safety measure. The naked dance started later. The sound of the wind, at 150 kmph, would implant fear into the strongest of hearts , simply because one is powerless against nature. You just cannot do a thing. The cyclone was to cross by 3 pm or so. When it was on, there was complete pandemonium. Everything seemed to be in the air - leaves, barks, branches of trees, paper, garbage, rubbish, particles of what and what not - even dish antennae.

I went outside, a huge umbrella in hand, well after the cyclone was supposed to have crossed. Then it happened, a sudden gust of wind, which appeared a left over, set in. It was an experience of how nature controls us. For once, the umbrella was pulled in all directions. With such a big umbrella, it was impossible to get wet and that day I got fully wet. It appeared as if the rain was even lashing from the bottom! What an encounter it was!

The usual suspects, the trees, started throwing in the towel - the stronger ones shed their leaves and branches; the weaker ones, well, themselves. It is not an easy sight, that of a fully grown tree getting uprooted and falling in front of your eyes, with the sound of fury as background music. Having been fed on a staple diet of Hollywood, I was reminded of disaster flicks like 'Twister',  "The Perfect Storm' and the like. Only this time, I was one of the actors in a real life movie. Nature has a way of showcasing its might, showing who is boss.

The cyclone was fierce, its roar growing by the minute. After a point of time, we all hid inside the house. The house resembled a war bunker where people were hiding to escape a shelling. We were hiding to escape the fury of the barrage of power showcased outside. The next hour or so was jarring with the Dolby effects of the destruction outside. Everything, everyone was powerless. One could only pray. The noise the cyclone made perhaps even made the prayers dissipate in mid air and not reach the Gods above. They couldn't hear us!

And then it ended. The after effects of the naked dance was there for everyone to see. Uprooted trees, fallen vehicles, lamp posts, street lights, wires strewn everywhere - it was like a wild kid gone crazy. It brought the entire bustling city to a standstill.

Then the night descended but the wind blew all night with a whirl, continuing to play in the head. The next day, I spent a couple of hours with a few others removing just one tree from the road! Riding through the city was like riding through a forest with trees and leaves of green everywhere. The IIT Madras, for example,  had a trail of destruction - a mangled mess of green. It has been two weeks and the city is still picking its pieces.

That day, fear had a new name - Vardah!

If only..

“It is in my nature to excel in whatever I do”

“Life has put me through a wringer”

"No one can get anything out of me or subdue me by threats, harsh treatment; it only makes me more stubborn, inflexible, unbending, determined. The only way anyone can get me to cooperate is to be nice to me, pamper me, cajole me, talk to me kindly, softly."

“I don’t understand the word platonic. Either there is a romantic relationship between two people or they are just friends.”

“The experiences I have been through, the suffering and pain have taught me an important lesson: in life there is one person you must rely on—yourself.”

“When you are a leader, you learn to control your emotions. You learn not to show your emotions openly. You have to”

The experiences I have been through, the suffering and pain have taught me an important lesson: in life there is one person you must rely on—yourself.

“…Now I am my own person. I have evolved. Hereafter, I am responsible only for myself. Never again will anybody influence me to such an extent that all my thoughts and actions and statements are influenced and made in a particular way just because someone else wants it that way."

”I am human, like everyone else. I do experience emotions and, I wouldn’t be normal if I didn’t experience feelings of anger and other emotions”

- All quotes from the internet attributed to Ms.J Jayalalithaa, former Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu (1948-2016)

The sea of crowds was not a surprise; in any other case, it could have also been managed (not saying it was; in fact, it was not in her case) but the near national level influence (and to some extent, international, going by news reports of international channels and newspapers reporting the passing away of a state level politician) of a lady who had not really gone beyond the ramparts of her Madras Fort was surprising to me. Non-Tamil Nadu governments declared holidays; CMs from almost every state made a beeline to pay their last respects; news channels telecast only about her for two days and then beamed her final journey live. Kind of unbelievable, the clout or influence she had.

I am kind of surprised because she was not a national level politician except for a stint at the Rajya Sabha more than 20 years back. It would be wrong to conclude that her influence was because of the numbers she cobbled up at the Lok Sabha. So what made her tick?

A state topper in class ten, she led a highly regimented life. She says that all her life, she was accustomed to working very hard – even at the age of four, she had to get up at five in the morning, have classical Carnatic music lessons, go to school, return, attend dance classes, complete homework, have dinner and fall into bed – Phew, man, that is something for a baby who has just grown into a kid. Once she was pushed into the film industry by her mother, she worked even six shifts a day - all through her film career, she never had any time to rest or sleep. It was work, work, and work all the time.

Someone about whom every other person only uses the words ‘brilliant’ ‘excellent’ and every single superlative, glorifying English epithet in the book must really be something. Indeed, she was.

One of the most avid readers on the planet, she could speak on anything – the relevance of the nuclear deal to the mid day meal scheme. There is a story of her as a kid buying so many books from Higginbothams, Madras in the early 60s. She was in two fields – movies and politics - by chance and not by choice; but excelled in both.

Not to take anything away from her, but her ascent was also helped by the fact that there was no real challenger to her in terms of grace, poise and most importantly – intellect. When you see too many mediocre people around you, you are bound to get a bit haughty.“When you are as great as I am, it is difficult to be humble” - So said Muhammad Ali, world boxing champion. I guess she was like that. When you find men either drooling over you all the time or the others devoid of much grey matter, it is bound to, at some level, make you super confident and push this thing into your mind – ‘Hey, come on, treat them with disdain’. One look at her quotes above and one can realize what sort of a person she was.

Yes, she was someone with super administrative capabilities which were the cornerstone of many of her decisions and perhaps the reasons for her being returned to office – the first in almost 30 years. The bureaucrats respected her – it was a relief for them to have someone who was intelligent, knew how to run a state, grasp things, and dole out advice.

It is even fascinating as to how she managed to put seasoned wily politicians in the shade with her own brand of politics. Yes, a lot of vitriol, but that is how politics is – they drag you to their level and expect you to play them down there. Being a lady, she was subject to the butt of innuendo, irreverence by many – inside and outside her party. These harboured in her, a distrust for others rather early in life, which only swelled by the day. This also resulted in her targeting even the right people at times. She felt that in politics men think a woman is dispensable and they try to destroy her existence, which is true till today. Multiple examples abound. Women are hated for just being women. In many spheres of life, why only politics?

I would have ideally liked to see her as the Prime Minister of India. It makes me think, and really think as to what she would have done if she had occupied that seat.

The biggest mistake she did and for which she does not get the vote of many, including mine, is her company and the way she allowed such company to dominate, even overshadow her completely – whether in administration or politics or personal life. It has left a bad taste in the mouth and has stunted all that she could have achieved. It is intriguing as to how such a powerful personality could have such an Achilles’ heel. That ultimately proved to be her undoing. If not for the pusillanimous courts, the very short public memory and a very weak opposition, she would not have been as deified as she has been today.

That also makes me wonder, who she would have been if not for that company – and it is wondrous, indeed. Sigh.

Flying red eyed out of Bombay

I must be a masochist. I am sort of convinced. Among the other things I do to sock myself, booking late night flights stands out. 

Surge pricing by taxis? How much? A few hundreds? Try booking Planes! A thousand rupees in a minute! A 7 pm flight that was Rs. 5000 just went up by another Rs. 4000 even as the booking was being made! Just in front of my eyes!

All said and done, middle class saving induced brains will never accept daylight robbery. So the next available option was the 'cheaper' flight. With other flights making the 7 pm flight seem like an angel when it came to lightening your pocket, the 10 pm flight at 4500 seemed reasonable. Booked. With a beaming face -  'I saved!' 'Beat you!'

Flights that depart late night and arrive early next morning are knows as red eye flights as they then to give you a red eye due to induced sleeplessness. Red eye flights are cheaper but the trade off is what they do to your body, the eyes in particular. The term 'red 'eye' is derived from symptoms of fatigue that can be seen in the eyes turning red, which can be caused or aggravated by late-night travel. You lose sleep waiting at the airport and saunter to the destination in the other city where you land in the wee hours of the morning - yes, the traffic less roads another boon, by the way. The issue is that after trying to get sleep throughout the flight, you end up getting sleep but it is time for the plane to land.

Bombay international airport is tastefully done. Very aesthetic, with beautiful artwork and a pleasing theme throughout. My favorite international airport in India. One can spend a lot of time just walking around and taking in the sights and sounds. With a multitude of shops throughout, uniform air conditioning and Mild instrumental music being piped, waiting is a pleasant experience. Isn't the government partial to cities like Bombay and Delhi alone when it comes to loosening the purse strings for development? Well, that's for another day!

And yes, the silent airport (major announcements like delays and gate changes only) is both a boon for people like me who cannot tolerate cacophony but a bane for those accidental sleepers and people who like to be hand held into the plane. Many a time, it is our wont to wait for the next announcement of our flight and we have to adjust for this initiative at some airports.

Since I have this habit of checking in well in advance for any trip(something I picked from my father), I had ample time to check out many shops in the airport. Window shopping is that easy!

One chain by name Vaango! (meaning 'please come!' In tamil) was selling South Indian food. 'OK,', I thought let me go since they were 'calling' . The menu card made me realize that the welcome was restricted to the, well, welcome board only. 300 rupees for a plate of upma! Two spoons! And they call it a 'value meal'! By what stretch of imagination? I guess it is value for them, which is why it is called so. Missal pav at 200, Masala dosai at 300... These are examples of daylight robbery. Lest I forget to mention, there was a queue for this! Ah, middle class, middle class!

As for the shops, I wonder who shops at these shops. There seems to be no one even mildly interested in checking them. A shop selling pens, for example. 'Gifting options from Rs.10,000/- onwards'.  What the... Ahem!' Many of them seem to be pricing their wares only for a category of people who can be termed rich or super rich. Perhaps it is for the international traveller. But a lot of domestic airports also have similar shops only. 

Air Deccan changed the way India flies but the commerce at the airports seems to be caught in a time warp. I can understand that it is not your everyday roadside shop, but, even considering the overheads and stuff, selling something is better than not selling at all. How many Rs. 20,000/- pens does one sell in a day? A week? It is for a category, I understand, but how do these people manage with such sparse sales? Food for thought?

Coming to the flight, well at 9:30 pm, when I was just loosening myself to step into the flight, came an announcement that it was delayed by an hour. Then, forty minutes later, - 'Jet Airways regrets to inform you that due to (whatever damned reason it was) there is a delay of one hour to departure. The revised departure time stands at 00:00 hrs!' Seriously! Where does that appear on the clock - all the four zeroes, I mean? Heartless. Your flight is already scheduled to depart when most of the world is sleeping, but they sock it in by delaying it by one more hour!

The Bombay airport is  notorious for taxiing issues. Planes need to Queue in for close to 30 minutes for taking off. So Much investment on aesthetics but not much thought on infrastructure and logistics. A shame. I mean, 30 minutes more to take off after boarding. 12:15 am would be the taxiing and close to 1 am would be departure making it a 2:45 am 3 am landing. Come on, even ghosts would have gone to bed!

Red eye flights are 1 am plus flights. But most of the flights departing... Sorry scheduled to depart by 11 PM or so seem to crown themselves with their invariable power to give you a red, blue or whatever eye anyway.

And the announcement again. 'guests on the Jet Airways flight to Chennai...'  Hey... hey... hold that! Am I a 'guest'? The land of 'Athithi devo bhava?' Do you treat your guests like this?  OK, I paid a few thousands less for a late night flight, but seriously not for this treatment, man! This is like... Third class! Thankfully, it was a flight where they served meals and I was not required to pay 200 rupees for a cup of noodles!

No web check in and I got the 'prestigious' middle seat! Next to two fat smelly chaps, who took both my armrests! And one of them was drunk! 

Did I say I was a masochist?

A cute little treatise on happiness

 

(Image source: www.iwatchstuff.com)

“Life is not all about cupcakes and rainbows but I would rather go through life thinking that it mostly is.....”

- From the Hollywood movie “The Trolls” (2016)

Animated movies hold our interest because they make us believe that anything is possible. When we set out to watch an animated movie, we suspend disbelief and logic. Of course, ‘anything can happen’ is too good to be true, isn’t it? However, many animated movies contain the most subtlest of messages. They are made for kids but by adults. Hence there is some adult who tries to get the message across to an adult too. In fact, I can vouch that most messages are for adults than kids as it is they who need to be reminded of a lot of positive things in life.

What if a cute little movie tries to get across the simplest of messages across with its little adorable (actually, not so ‘adorable’ in the sense of the word, as trolls are meant to be ‘ugly’ dolls!) characters? The animated Hollywood movie ‘The Trolls’ is what I am talking about. There is a group of people (‘the Bergens’) who are brainwashed to thinking that happiness can be obtained only if they eat the other group of people (‘the Trolls’, that is). How one of the Trolls manages to get the message across to the Bergens that happiness cannot be sought outside but must be brought from inside forms crux of the movie. No blood or gore, no violence and no profanities. A simple delightful thread of events unfolds. Plus, the comedy in the movie (which is subtle and intermittent), is not slapstick but poignant and clever at times.

Now, let us try to get answers to attaining happiness .

Where can we find happiness?

How can one try to find happiness inspite of one’s circumstances? Not a single soul on this earth is trouble free; nor it is rosy all over. But it is something to be able to follow one’s dreams and push things. Things happen only if you push and with all your heart. A staid squatter is not going to achieve things in life. But in trying to achieve things, one needs to believe it will lead him / her to happiness.

“Life is not all about cupcakes and rainbows but I would rather go through life thinking that it mostly is....”

This dialogue from the movie largely sums up our lives and the search for the non-existent outside rather than the existent inside.

When we try to search for happiness, there is a lot of soul searching involved. A bulk of this is sub conscious eventually leads you to oneself. For example, the lead character in the movie (‘Poppy’, a girl and that’s refreshing!) is full on positive and never believes that any loss can be a loss unless one tries to put all effort in achieving something to alleviate it.

“How do you always look on the bright side?” says a character to Poppy, who is seemingly an icon for all of us humans to emulate few things to get a life.

Like the movie, life is a story about happiness and how far some will go to get it and how far we can go and get it back.

Where does happiness lie?

A lot of people say that happiness is a choice and it is inside us. But how we can convert seemingly unhappy situations in life to happy ones, lies within us. We try to find happiness in acquiring new things, perhaps even possessing things, getting more money etc. It is not to say that these things do not give us joy. A new mobile phone, all said and done, indeed gives  pleasure. But you cannot buy a mobile phone every time you need happiness. You cannot expect an increased salary every other month which will seemingly give you happiness. A car, for example......how many can you buy? This is the limit of material things giving us happiness, though it is undeniable that they are and, to an extent, necessary in life as a ladder to happiness. Thus they are a means to happiness; but they are not all that is happiness.

When can one attain happiness?

One can attain happiness at any point of time. There is no starting point. One need not wait for a particular hour to begin to be happy; it is immediate as it is a state of mind, which means that you have to bring it from inside you.

How can one attain happiness?

Hence happiness depends on when you decide to be happy. Just bring it into existence with your thoughts. This is a really simple sentence but pregnant with wisdom. Start appreciating the smallest of the nice things around you. This helps in enduring the difficult circumstances and tolerating the bad things.

Are others happier than us?

A lot of us feel that the other one is happy – in fact every person other than us seems to be happy – but it is not true. As many people say, if we are allowed to exchange our troubles we will try to do it but will gladly take them back the next day. The grass is always green on the other side.

Happiness, like the mythical djinn, is inside you. Just summon it and you will see the difference!

Nomophobia

Recently, I had the fortune (or misfortune, depending on how you look at it) of misplacing my phone which led me to be without it for almost a couple of days. I did not realise at that point of time, the consequences of what were in store. Can you live without you phone for two days?

The primary advantage I had was that both the days were holidays and hence the pressure of official calls was non-existent. If it was, then it would have been a different ball game. Firstly, the feeling of getting lost started pervading. It was almost like I was one hand down. My trouser pocket did not have a protruding bulge.....in fact, it felt awkwardly comfortable. Sometimes, like every half an hour, I felt like I had lost my phone. I would invariably touch my pocket and, after a moment, realise that I had misplaced my phone. I started making eye contact with things on the road. But the wonder was I was the only person who was walking with his head held high. Almost every other person was head down, staring at and furiously typing into their four - five inch LCD screens. It was like I was the only single in a ‘couples only’ world.

I felt like a bozo. After a couple of hours, without facebook, twitter, google, hike, inshorts, and whatsapp, I was feeling different in a very weird kind of way. Stressed, maybe?

With no TV at home, I did not know what was happening in faraway Syria. Forget Syria, I did not know what was happening in Satara. Or Salem. Not that I was a superhero trying to save the world, but not knowing the news was kind of, strange. I talk very less on my phone; texting, reading and typing occupy more than 95% of my phone usage.

And I have this mandatory wee hour wake up calls...I lose sleep. These are the minutes and hours when the net becomes very active in my phone. With no wi-fi at home and no phone, i was prancing up and down like a hungry tiger.

Bizarrely nervy and strangely weird. No notification sounds, though I have most of them on mute anyway. I don’t know what sort of a phenomenon I can call it, but we are all afflicted by this bug. It is kind of escapist, I would say. These little gadgets have put up into a comfort zone and made us live a life which we can try to minimise living. Not to say that they are something bad. In fact they are good companions – they listen to whatever we say! They have made our lives easy – from contacting people to keeping in touch with long lost companions to searching for things, gaining knowledge to even ordering food and other stuff online... they are indispensible. Imagine emergencies and being without them - one is not even able to think about such situations. But it is kind of like our lives seem to revolve around them. Only around them. We are constantly into them, sometimes forgetting the other things we can do. Technology has had such an impact on our lives that instead of owning gadgets, we have allowed them to own us.

These couple of days of phone detox were perhaps what the doctor ordered, to jolt me out of the incongruent phone lifestyle I had gotten myself into. I could see the food I was eating, taste it properly, smell the trees, plants and flowers around me, even think more about things which I used to give thoughts about cursorily.

I went back in time....

I was a big time TV guy. My TV used to be on almost all the time I was awake. Even while cleaning or dusting or cooking, the TV would be on. The only saving grace was that I watch TV on mute all the time, except if it is music ....it is another weird habit that I have got. Hence others at home are not disturbed with any sound. Then one day, I decided to live without the TV. It was a decision in which I never had any faith in myself – I was expecting to install a dish any time immediately after that decision – but days became weeks became months and now, it is one and a half years that I have been without the TV. It was difficult at first, having been used to news and sport and movies all the time. It was a good companion. I have always maintained that TV is, was and will be the greatest invention of man. But it was taking over my life. I felt escapist while watching TV. Then I tried and gave it up. But now I realise that the TV has been replaced by another gadget – the smart phone. I don't know if I can give up the phone like I did the TV.

This is not to say anything negative about being addicted to a gadget. In fact, in this lonely world, I feel gadgets are our best friends. They are available at our beck and call, do everything for us make us feel as if they are there for us during every situation in life - whether we are happy, sad, lost, depressed...whatever.

When I got back my phone, it was like meeting a long lost, brother, parent, girlfriend whatever you call it  – lips quivering, hands shivering and, perhaps, even a churn of the liver.

Even as I am posting this, there are buzzes on the phone, signalling notifications. I don’t know if I have learnt, but I think I will perhaps try my best to peep into that little LCD screen a little lesser from here on. 

Do clowns give you the creeps?

image source:www.inquistr.com 

“Kill you all!" The clown was laughing and screaming. "Try to stop me and I'll kill you all! Drive you crazy and then kill you all! You can't stop me!” I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I am your worst dream come true! I am everything you ever were afraid of!

― From the novel “It” by Stephen King

America and Europe are getting panicky over alleged ‘creepy clown’ sightings. But why are clowns scaring people instead of making them laugh? Read on…

Shakespeare was perhaps one of the earliest persons to use the word ‘clown’, to describe dim witted and dumb characters his plays. The advent of the form of the present circus clown – with painted face, red ball nose and loose clothes – is supposed to have started in around the 19^th century in Europe. 

The general images of clowns in movies were those of people who lived two lives – one where they made fools of themselves and others, as jesters and their own private lives, which were anything but funny. The private lives of many such people – remember Charlie Chaplin and many such comedians in India too – were melancholia driven. 

This was until 1978, when a certain John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994), was caught by police in Illinois, USA, for being involved in various rapes and serial killings (numbering 33, according to the police). Now, Gacy worked as a clown (named ‘Pogo’) and was one of the funny people who the kids could relate to. He also used to draw and paint picture of clowns. The police were shocked to know as to why he worked as a clown - "You know… clowns can get away with murder.”  He was finally killed by lethal injection in 1994. He became infamous as the ‘Killer Clown.’

Now, this became a subject for our Hollywood friends – who are always on the lookout for novel crimes – to adapt to movies. Many of us would have seen Steven Spielberg’s ‘Poltergeist’ – remember the scene of the doll under the bed? Stephen King’s novel ‘It’, which was also adapted into a movie in 1990, had a clown killer. A recent one I can remember watching was the horror ‘Amusement’ (2009). I have not watched ‘All Hallows' Eve’, which is a 2013 horror movie featuring a killer clown.

Movies-inspire-life-inspires-movies – the quintessential “chicken and egg”story? One does not know which leads to what; but a criminal is obviously inspired by something other than just indigenous instinct. 

An matter of intrigue -  why did the clown as a killer gain acceptance among the public? A clown is a person who hides his appearance. He wears such make up whereby you cannot see his true face. In addition, the psyche of him hiding his identity and feelings becomes believable. So the clown as the scaring prankster turned psychopathic killer is a subject that a book reader / movie watcher is able to relate to. The clown can be a serial killer – it is almost as if the clowns in movies cannot have normal lives; there has to be a duality somewhere, even barbaric. The killer clown gives you the creeps – guaranteed! Maybe there is a lot of sarcasm and sadism in his laugh.

This has led to real life tragedies - one cannot forget the mass shooting in 2012 in a movie theatre in Colorado where, the killer did so, dressed as the character ‘Joker’ at the premiere of the Batman movie ‘The Dark Knight’. The tragic irony was that the clown was the killer in the movie too!

Presently, such ‘creepy clown’ sightings are growing across the USA and even Europe; alarming even the police who have now started issuing advisories to the pranksters to keep off. Do you know who are affected as a result of all these? The persons who really work as clowns for a living – they would be hoping that the hysteria stops at some point, for sanity’s sake!