Detention of KHANS or Retention of AMERICAN PARANOIA????

The news item which has engaged the entire nation into a debate is SRK's detention and frisking in US last week. Now there are various school of counterviews coming into this fiasco and why not, when the cynosure is the the man who draws the maximum attention of his countrymen after Amitabh Bachhan, Sir Sachin Tendulkar, The Prime Minister and the ever so happening Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav. Its not that he is garnering so much attention because of the fact that he is the Numero Uno entertainer of the country but its also because a huge mass of population loves to hate him too, attributing it to his overacting stints, extremely arrogant mannerisms or for his irritating die hard penchant to be in the news all the time. All in all the entire nation takes a keen note of his moves and life for reasons ranging from love, hate, extreme fan following to criticism of the highest degree. But strangely enough, what's interesting to note in this episode is, he himself is not the one who is calling all this attention, but its the media and the common people who are blowing the issue out of proportion. Mr Khan has categorically said that he neither wants an apology of any sort nor he wants a tit for tat with his contemporaries in Hollywood, rather he mocked the entire incident saying that, yes he was a bit disturbed with the entire Quizzing session, as any normal human being would have but he laughed it off by saying that if given a chance he would love and cherish to frisk Anjelina Jolie and Megan Fox for over 66 minutes to have the time of his life.

In fact if it would have been any celebrity much smaller in stature to him, he/she would have done the same thing too, by calling up the Indian Consulate and asking for help. I don't think Bobby Darling would have done anything different to what SRK did and even that would have drawn the same media coverage. But what's disappointing is the fact that people are blabbering their outrage and disliking or support and solidarity for the man just based on their personal affinity for the star, and in turn terming it an unfortunate incident or a publicity stunt. Now factually speaking does he actually need to do all this cheap stuff to gain publicity??? A man who has given the biggest hits in the history of Indian cinema, so what if he has broken all the records of overacting and repeatedness in all his roles, a man who is anyways always in the news be it because of his star studded cricket team, so what if his team has got badly butchered and battered by even the teams of the likes of Chinchpokli Mohalla Eleven. I don't think he needs to do all this to be in the news, its absolutely rubbish! Now how the entire matter should have been dealt is an altogether different issue, that whether the government intervention and their press notes were actually called for or not. But what has happened over last few months in terms of frisking and detention, be it with SRK or be it with his highness Mr APJ Kalam, is seriously worth giving a thought.

Now personally I feel there are two aspects attached to this, which people are intermingling as per their convenience or as per their liking or disliking for the stars involved in these fiasco. One of the aspect is, 'When it comes to security and safety checks, should be treat the VIPs and V VIPs with the same yardstick with which a common man is treated?' and the secondly ' Is it true that United States of America has actually crossed its limits and have exhibited the highest degree of paranoia when it comes to dealing the Muslim or Asian people?'. Now there is a very thin line between these two aspects, which media is overlooking for its benefit, understandably so to increase its viewer ship and revenues. And the common man is overlooking this demarcation to show their loyalties or hatred against its star, as the case may be, without actually understanding the situation in terms of practicality. Now if we talk of the 1st aspect, which argues about the special treatments being given to the celebs in terms of security and safety checks, there is nothing wrong in treating them at par with the common man, and I believe no celebrity who has got even an ounce of brain will object to it. But if we talk of the second aspect which actually frisks the travelers all the more just because of his nationality or his faith, it is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS! A Hindu, Catholic or a Sikh traveler should be frisked and cross examined with the same rigorousness with which a Muslim traveler is being frisked. Because if Muslim envoy can cause a 9/11, even a Hindu contingent can demolish the sacred Babri Masjid. Though America has been successful in avoiding any untoward event after 9/11 due to its excellent and tight security measures but by crossing these lines every time, they are doing nothing but inciting the islamic radical groups and outfits to act against them. They are by no means lreducing the hatred which the middle east and far east extremists carry against them, but they are only catalyzing the hate process even more. On the same lines, the media and the common man should also show some restraint and express their outright views on such contentious issue with utmost caution.

And abhorring a man only because one dislikes him in other walks of life and so whatever he does needs to be criticized is absolutely unfair and so is the fact of blindly appreciating him just for the simple reason that he is a heartthrob, and whatever he does is worth a clap. We need to behave maturely now when it comes to alienate between our personal choices and the macro issues, otherwise we are doing no good to ourselves but just frisking our minds unnecessarily. Very much the AMERIKAN style:)!!!!

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