For a long time, I used to be a huge fan. Discovered him when I was in Std IV in a boarding school near Darjeeling.

Like it happens all ‘only boys’ schools there were times when you got into fist fights. During one of those fights, the guy I had just clocked, instead of punching back called me a ‘blackie’. I was dark and he was a ‘ fair’ guy.

To an impressionable 8 yr old, it hurt more than any punch.

And it was MJ’s ‘Black or White’ which helped at that point of time.

However, more than the social message, it was his music that I really liked. You could just hum most of his songs…even though i couldnt understand most of the lyrics, i just loved hearing the songs…

Those were also the days when magnetic cassette tapes were still in use and hard to come by. And they were expensive too (alteast compared to a school kid’s pocket money )

I used rent them from some of  the rich scmucks at school during the weekends. Later when I got my own Walkman, rather than buy whole albums , I would get a bootlegger to write about 12 songs on a blank tape. They cost like 5 bucks a song and were a much better deal than buying a single album.

I guess you could call me a cheap ‘fan’ but it was tough spending half your month’s worth of pocket money on single tapes.

Oh, those were the days.

Gradually, high school turned into college and Michael turned from black to white.(and i guess also went bankrupt fighting the child molestation accusations). He also stopped producing the kind of music that I liked. The breaking point came for me when i bought ‘ Blood on the dance floor’ and didn’t like a single song

Life moved on and he sort of faded from memory. Till ofcourse a few days ago.

Today when, I think about it, it’s amazing the amount of sub conscious impact his music has had on me, unlike that of any other musician.

As somebody was saying the other day, ” oh he was only 50 and should have lived longer”.

I don’t disagree with, that. However, in his 50 yrs, he has lived life on his own terms and more importantly ‘done his thing’ , creating history in the process.

Which is what counts at the end of the day.

May he R.I.P