COVID19 DAY 22-38 (30.4.2020)

AN ERA IS PASSING

Covid19 is not showing too many signs of abating as the worldwide toll crossed three million positive cases. American President Donald Trump was true to his reality tv star status with the help of histrionics that has spawned a plethora of comedy shows. The USA, in the meantime continues to occupy the leading spot (if that is any comfort) in the total number of cases as well as deaths from the virus. India by the way is slowly creeping up on the US and has climbed from position 22 to position 16 on the worldometer chart. The number of cases has trebled over 15 days from 11,555 on April 15 to 35,000 on May 1.

Covid19 pandemic has somehow come to resemble the Mahabharat story of Arjun’s son Abhimanyu who knew how to enter the battle ‘chakravyuh’ or maze but had no idea of how to get out. Lockdown appeared to be an attractive idea in the beginning but most are finding it very hard to design a way of coming out of it unscathed. It might be all right on the one hand as humourist P.G. Woodhouse use to say in his stories about uncertain situations. On the other hand, things may simply spin out of control if the exit is made too early and the biggest irony is that nobody knows when is the right time or when is too early.

However, as the pandemic rages an era seems to be slowly passing out in India with the deaths of stars from an earlier era. Chuni Goswami, captain of the Indian football team that won the Asian Games gold medal in 1962 defeating South Korea 2-1 (can you believe it?) died at age 82. The handsome quicksilver forward was a hero of our times. Now one newspaper has reported in a headline that former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly has mourned the death of Subimal Goswami (not Chuni Goswami - I can’t believe it. Its like referring to Pele as Edson Arantes do Nascimento). Goswami’s team-mate P.K. Banerjee too died last month. Just shows that old times are passing.

Another star that passed away was Rishi Kapoor who launched the ‘Rajdoot GTS’ mini bike (175 cc) in his hugely popular film ‘Bobby’ in 1973 alongside the beautiful Dimple Kapadia. The only problem was that this mini bike was given the sound of a Harley-Davidson in the film soundtrack. The ‘Rajdoot GTS’ has become a dinosaur though Kapoor and Kapadia had continued their film careers in character roles. That was indeed a different era that few in this post liberalisation time can imagine. For youngsters (and I was one at that time) there was a very limited variety of motorbikes available. One was the 'Rajdoot' manufactured by Escorts, better known for manufacturing tractors. The other was Czech 250 cc Jawa which later came to be called Yezdi. These were pushed out of the market by the more fuel efficient and lighter Japanese bikes. The only other two-wheeler available was the Bajaj (earlier Vespa which has made a comeback recently). The choice of automobiles too was limited to three brands - good old Ambassador that evolved from the British car Morris and FIAT, an Italian car assembled and later manufactured in India as Premier, and Standard. The latter had a variant in Standard Herald that was modified Triumph two door sporty model. The liberalisation and entry of many Japanese, Korean and American brands of automobiles drove the cars out of the market too. So really, an era passes.

In ‘Bobby’ Rishi Kapoor also popularised the long woollen scarf that resembled the scarf worn by Vanessa Redgrave in the 1968 film ‘Isadora’. The film was based on the life of an American dancer who died after her scarf got entangled in the wheels of the automobile in which she was travelling. Of course, nothing of the kind happened to Raja, the role played by Rishi Kapoor. Another star to die was Irrfan Khan who however belonged to an intermediate era but will be missed by all.

Sad times.