"This is it..."

I caught the news of the demise of the 'King of Pop' (June 25th) flashing on news channels. "Michael Jackson died of a cardiac arrest caused by a painkiller overdose".

It was ironical that his last came in at a time when he was looking forward to make a comeback. MJ was slated to do a series of 50 'comeback' concert performances by the name 'This Is It' beginning July 13, 2009, at The O₂ arena in London.

The shows had been cited as one of the year's most important musical events. Each of the shows would have had a maximum capacity of 23,000, so it was estimated that more than one million people would have attended the shows. It was stated that the first 10 dates alone would have earned the singer approximately £50 million.

A classic case of 'Man proposes God disposes' I guess. It is sad that the name of the shows 'This is It' had to earn such a different connotation altogether.

Personally I have never been a MJ fan and certainly it has not really disrupted my life in any way. (No offence to anyone though, may he RIP) But then the news actually led me to think that no matter what and how you plan for things, there is always that element of uncertainty about life which can rewrite all planned scripts.

Then on the same day, my cable wala (oh yes, I am still on cable and not TATA SKY or DishTV) aired 'Dasvidaniya' - the story of Amar Kaul, who is symbolic of all people who have always wanted to do a million things but kept them on hold. Dasvidaniya actually talks about the same point of uncertainty in life but in a different fashion. In the movie, the central character, played by Vinay Pathak is informed by his doctor that he has only three months to live. So, in the days to follow, he lists down all the things that he has always wanted to do and in course of doing these, he realizes that he probably has been dead until now except for these  last three months.

Perhaps it was the concoction of the news and the movie that got my head reeling and led me to recall all the things that I have always been planning to do but haven't really motivated myself enough to actually get down to do them.

Anyway, I still don't know how and when shall I be realizing my list of things to do before I die, but then I guess MJ's story has been a subtle reminder to everyone alive that you can't really put off things for an indefinite period because you never know when life turns its back on you and exclaims - "This is It, boy !!"