The Indian national football team captain, Bhaichung Bhutia, barely squeezed in 11 minutes of the mandatory 15 minutes of fame for his principled decision not to carry the Beijing bound Olympic torch in Delhi on April 17.
Reason: somewhere between the 10th and the 11th minute his thunder was stolen by actor/director Aamir Khan who stated that he had a different way of wearing his conscience on his sleeve.
He would carry the torch but with a prayer in his heart for the people of Tibet. He said, "The Games did not belong to China but to the human race".
On screen, it would be called a nuanced piece of method acting. Off-screen it is called positioning.
Or is it just a coincidence that among the human race that owns the Games are official sponsors Coca-Cola, a brand Khan carries a torch for through endorsements?
Poor man, he will be running multiple overlaps - carrying the Olympic torch as a Coke team member, for humanity's claim to the Games and for the Tibetan cause against China's oppression. That's a lot of running of the treadmill kind.
It is a measure of Khan's reputation as a thinking individual that his recent sniper attempts to voice issues have not met with the usual disdain reserved for motor-mouth celebrities.
Largely, Khan's stance as explained on his blog - sans any mention of the Coke factor - has been hailed as a 'mature' decision, preserving India's diplomatic face while expressing support for Tibet.
No comments:
Post a Comment