PAPARAZZIS, VOYEURISTS AND GOSSIP-MONGERS

Princess Diana and her lover Dodi-Al-Fayed met with a tragic accident in 1997. Both of them succumbed to their injuries. It was a shocking news to people across the World. To escape from the prying eyes of Paparazis, who were following them ,the chauffeur, as per their instruction was driving the car with mind boggling speed. If my memory is correct, the incident occurred in 1997 at Paris.

From the moment she got married to Prince Charles, later they divorced is another matter, the paparazis were always behind them. Now her sons, Prince Harry and Prince Williams are being pried upon by paparazis, both of them are involved in romantic relationships. Paparazis are interested and very much excited to publish the hot news of their relationships in the tabloids with the photographs of their intimate moments at various tourist resorts.

Celebrities, if there are controversies surrounding them are always shadowed wherever they are. Imagine the mental trauma these people undergo, be it in day or night the feeling of being followed by the paparazis. But paparazis don’t care and they are not worried about mental agonies of the celebrities. Britney Spears,Madonna, BradPitt and Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruiz, Katie Holmes- all are undergoing the trauma through out the day and night. I recall the days when BradPitt and Angelina Jolie visited India to act in a film about Daniel Pearl ( Wall Street Journal), the unfortunate journalist, who was hacked to death by Pakistani Terrorists. But in our nation, the men with prying eyes are not included in the category of paparazis, I don’t know why. Might be the “patent” is already awarded to the European and American guys who are always in the hot pursuit of celebrities!

Men and women alike, whether celebrities or common men or women, always covet their privacy. They don’t like to be shadowed and what they always aspire for are some moments of loneliness to share their personal joys and sorrows. The very reason for the fall of the Govt of late young Turk S.Chandrashekhar was the news of two members of Central Intelligence were found frequently near the residence of late Rajiv Gandhi, leading to the withdrawal of support to Govt.

Lay-men and women need not laugh at the predicament, dilemmas and agonies of the celebrities. Most of them are not aware of the truth that they are also occasionally followed. These followers are better called voyeurists, not paparazis.

Here I recall Kunjuvarkey, an young man of our village, and think about his perverted mind. Not so lean, not so fat, not so tall and not so short always wearing a lungi which is tucked up to his knees and a towel fastened around his head. Kunjuvarkey was always smiles whether in good times or bad times, a daily wage labourer and whenever he got a day to relax, he encroached upon somebody’s coconut estate without a human trace there he climbed up the coconut trees and stole coconuts, sold them to those who were familiar with him. With the fall of darkness in the village, Kunjuvarkey chose the duty of a voyeurist and with his prying eyes he entered the premises of certain houses particularly where there is newly married couple enjoying sweet moments and stealthily moved to the house and through the gaps of the windows peeped his eyes through the gap to watch and enjoy- the inside hot moments going on there. An energetic Kunjuvarkey would jump the compound wall of the land and walk with mischievous smile and divulge the secrets to his so-called friends like a drunkard inebriated by consuming arrack and toddy. But his perversion was known to certain people and hence during the night before going to bed they got out with their torch to have a view of the premises of the houses and occasionally “caught him with his pants down” and a brutal assault followed. The gentle man would roar and after giving him a violent kick ordered him to run away, that Kunjuvarkey would obey with folded hands.

Such blows and kicks were not new to Kunjuvarkey and he would take it in his stride and continued the adventures unabated. Village people would laugh at him and he became a talk of the “town”. Kunjuvarkey was not taken aback and he always kept his smile intact.

The poor fellow is no more now. One day, he decided to put an end to his “extra-curricular activities”, to put a full-stop to the entire story by consuming poison. Human mind is always a puzzle and it can’t be confined to squares and circles. As the famous Assamese writer Indira Goswami wrote in her autobiography (“An Unfinished Autobiography”), even after the phenomenal development in science and technology the so-called experts in the field of psychology have not been able to fathom the depths of human mind even when they are capable of delving deep in to the very bottom of an ocean.

Urban and rural people are not free from gossips and voyeurism. Kunjuvarkeys’ are galore in our land. In the matter of spreading gossip about somebody women are a few steps ahead,they excel in that “art” very well, they also derive some sort of pleasure from gossiping about the women living nearby always vowing not to disclose the secret to anybody and in the next moment, these “parties” break the vow of silence and trust whisper it to another ‘friend’ and the gossip spreads like wild fire engulfing the whole village. In all fields, whether it be in gossip-mongering, voyeurism, politics,arts, tinsel-world, such things go on and don’t expect a full-stop ever… As one character put in a novel “we can’t escape human depravity”.