It was March 1980. After having done with my matriculation exams, I was looking for magazines to brush up on my general knowledge. The latest issue of Competition Success Review had Robert Mugabe on its cover while Prakash Padukone held aloft the All-England Badminton Championship trophy on the cover of Sportsworld.
Mugabe was indeed the poster boy of liberation and democracy. Padukone was a matter of pride for Indian sports in an era when there were hardly any sports heroes to write home about. I remember having read with a lot of interest articles detailing Mugabe's guerrilla war and how he was the hope of the predominantly black nation, on the doorstep of an apartheid-ridden South Africa. Winds of change in South Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, would sweep across the borders and rid South Africans of their misery. Interestingly, South Africa found its own formula of inclusive growth and development a little more than a decade later. So it is quite surprising that Zimbabwe were to fall in the typical African milieu of despotic rule. From a popular leader, Robert Mugabe, who was one of my heroes then, had degenerated into a demagogue. That he had to go the way he did was inevitable even if a bit too late.
What Prakash Padukone did then and thereafter played out differently. He not only brought glory to the nation through his exploits but also introduced to the world his highly talented daughter Deepika who has graduated into the numero uno Bollywood actress. Today she has, without actually having planned to, emerged as a symbol of freedom of expression. The medieval mindset brigade wants to chop her nose off but she is bravely appearing in public and promoting her film 'Padmavati'. A number of plots and sub-plots keep playing thanks to the BREAKING NEWS syndrome that the news channels suffer from. For all the history I know, Padmavati had committed 'jauhar' to save her honour after Khilji had seen her through a mirror and wanted to marry her. If there are any other interpretations of this piece of history, which I can vouch from what I had read as a child in Amar Chitra Katha, or whether she danced like she does in the movie is utterly trash. India's political establishment still has remnants of feudalism in its veins and so political parties across the spectrum have jumped on to the 'ban' wagon even before the film has been certified for screening.
History repeats its characters even if the script may not be tailor-made.
Mugabe was indeed the poster boy of liberation and democracy. Padukone was a matter of pride for Indian sports in an era when there were hardly any sports heroes to write home about. I remember having read with a lot of interest articles detailing Mugabe's guerrilla war and how he was the hope of the predominantly black nation, on the doorstep of an apartheid-ridden South Africa. Winds of change in South Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, would sweep across the borders and rid South Africans of their misery. Interestingly, South Africa found its own formula of inclusive growth and development a little more than a decade later. So it is quite surprising that Zimbabwe were to fall in the typical African milieu of despotic rule. From a popular leader, Robert Mugabe, who was one of my heroes then, had degenerated into a demagogue. That he had to go the way he did was inevitable even if a bit too late.
What Prakash Padukone did then and thereafter played out differently. He not only brought glory to the nation through his exploits but also introduced to the world his highly talented daughter Deepika who has graduated into the numero uno Bollywood actress. Today she has, without actually having planned to, emerged as a symbol of freedom of expression. The medieval mindset brigade wants to chop her nose off but she is bravely appearing in public and promoting her film 'Padmavati'. A number of plots and sub-plots keep playing thanks to the BREAKING NEWS syndrome that the news channels suffer from. For all the history I know, Padmavati had committed 'jauhar' to save her honour after Khilji had seen her through a mirror and wanted to marry her. If there are any other interpretations of this piece of history, which I can vouch from what I had read as a child in Amar Chitra Katha, or whether she danced like she does in the movie is utterly trash. India's political establishment still has remnants of feudalism in its veins and so political parties across the spectrum have jumped on to the 'ban' wagon even before the film has been certified for screening.
History repeats its characters even if the script may not be tailor-made.
