PEOPLE COME and go but what they leave behind are their deeds and words, which keep on lingering on our minds forever. The world was shock-spelled when on Thursday, June 26, 2009; the TV screens flashed the breaking news of unexpected death of Michael Jackson. His sequined glove, the whitened face, the black hat, his moonwalk, band aided fingers is all that comes to my mind on hearing the name Michael Jackson. Nicknamed as MJ, he was more of a character than just a singer and now he is no more. He might be lying somewhere silent beneath this earth…I wonder, what this life actually is, perhaps a mere deception. 

Born on August 29, 1958, the lone winner of 18 Grammy awards, MJ was the one who introduced English music to India. The father of moon-walk (his signature dance), moon-walked his way into the hearts of millions of people. Many a time, compared to Elvis Presley, Jackson was afraid of dying young like Elvis. And Alas! His fear somehow proved right. Initiating his career at the raw age of five, MJ was said to be one-man rescue team for music business. It was only because of him MTV gained its heyday. It’s quite impossible to calculate the full effect Jackson had on the world of music. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides, while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing. And nobody could do it 100 per cent flawlessly than the ‘pop-icon’ himself. At the pinnacle of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star of the globe, having sold more than 750 million albums. But as they say, ‘where there is a rise, it hath to fall’. Soon afterwards his career started a bizarre disintegration. In the year 1988, he released his autobiography titled “Moon-Walk,” which took four long years for completion. MJ’s autobiography revealed some dingy dark secrets concerning his childhood which put forth yet another side of Jackson’s personality having had not so good early days. 

MJ was somehow constantly caught in one or the other controversy, be it his failed cosmetic surgeries, rhinoplasty or undergoing hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Though his darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. Although the series of controversies had an awful impact on his health, finances and people started referring to him as, “wacko-jacko.” Yet, nothing dented his popularity; nobody could deny the extra-ordinary contribution he has made in music and performance.