Yes, We Khan!!

Yawning uncontrollably, one weary hand holding a cup of coffee, the other hand just done scratching out morning wax from his sleepy eyes, the average Indian must have taken the day's paper from under his armpits to glance at the day's headlines - to be treated about an 'ordeal' that our 'global Bollywood icon', let's call him SR Khan, had to go through. Of all the unimaginable horrors that a celebrity could face in this strife-torn world, he had endured one of the very worst - he had been frisked at the Newark Airport, and later requested for a check, in the US of A. All this because ( SR Khan ) he had a last name that belonged to a certain community of a certain continent, and ( unnamed US official ) that he was asked to go through a very 'routine' checkup because Khan had a substantial amount of money on him.

The actor, claiming that his pride has been hurt to an extent that he does not feel like 'stepping on American soil anymore', also said that it is the 'love of his fans', that'll bring him back. Politicians all over the country have started the usual name-calling and effigy-burning, bickering about tit-for-tat tactics to be doled out to American citizens landing on our soil.

While I have no disrespect for Mr. SR Khan, owing to the fact he IS a big name in the Bollywood industry, I would like to point out that a certain VVIP, former President A Kalam was asked to do something similar ( though he didn't have to wait an hour to get through ), him being from the same community as Khan. This, too, was not too many days ago. What with the other piece of 'sensational' news, about another actor E Hashmi claiming that he was denied a house because he belongs to a minority, I feel that things are getting a little out of hand. I mean, the former Prez himself didn't create a ruckus and start bad-mouthing the Continental Airlines, inspite of him being frisked in New Delhi itself.

How is it that after overthrowing around 200 years of colonial rule, and 63 years ( just yesterday, that too ) of independence, we still cannot shed the veil of second-hand? Or was it just clamouring for attention? After all, celebrities are demi-Gods in this country. And like they say - any publicity is good publicity.

While I sympathize with Mr. Khan about his predicament, I wonder why a different article, in the same paper that the same average Indian read at the beginning of my post, that too reaching that page after scratching other unmentionables, didn't create such waves among Americans. I am, of course, referring to Bob Dylan being asked for identification by some rookie cops, because neither the cops, nor the residents who reported Dylan as a 'suspicious man', could recognize the great man. For further references, however, for the American residents, the rookie cops, AND anyone else interested, I am posting a couple of profile pictures of Bob Dylan and King Khan. :P

Considering the furore it has raised, one must at least appreciate the irony that SR Khan was in the country to shoot for his next film venture, titled ( quite coincidentally) 'My Name is Khan'.