I quite like Barack Obama. I must confess though that his predecessor, the much disliked George Bush was infinitely friendlier towards India. In fact, I am surprised Indians dislike Bush so much even though he stuck his neck out to do things for India that no American President had ever done, including our much loved Bill Clinton. Obama is like Clinton, very friendly, very charming, but never quite with us. So Pakistan is back to getting billions of dollars worth of aid and the latest weapons while India struggles to be heard on Capitol Hill even though Manmohan Singh risked his Government to make the nuclear deal happen.
But no, this column is not about Obama and the politics of this sub-continent. It’s about his amazing qualities, largely undiscovered as yet, that have just won him the Nobel Peace Prize within 37 weeks of becoming the President of the US. Nominations for the Nobel closed within a week of his entering the White House and unless the wonderful people in the jury were so prescient that they could anticipate Obama would one day make history, I simply can’t figure out how they chose him, and why. In fact, the poor guy has still done nothing to deserve the award. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are on. He has messed up Pakistan, made it worse. So what’s the award for?
You must also realise that the guys in Oslo are very picky. They didn’t think Gandhi was good enough for the Nobel Peace Prize even though he was acclaimed as the last century’s most powerful apostle of peace. What’s more, he actually did a few interesting things like using non violence as a weapon in our freedom struggle, a struggle he so successfully concluded. Since he wasn’t considered adequate, I assume the committee’s standards are very exacting. So I’m doubly curious to know what Obama did in less than a week of assuming office to deserve the nomination.
This leads me to a question that has often bothered me. What constitutes fame? Why are people famous? What are their achievements that inspire us remember them? After all, there are many good men and women who we have so easily forgotten despite their not inconsiderable successes. I can name a hundred. People who we have chosen to forget even during their lifetime. I also know a hundred who remain famous for no reason I can fathom. No, fear not, I am not going to quote Andy Warhol and his famous quip on 15 minutes of fame. My question is much simpler: What is this fame all about? Why do we all strive so much for it?
There are people who do great things and become famous. There are others who gain notoriety and become famous. There is the third kind who do nothing at all and become famous. They are like Paris Hilton, famous for the sake of being famous. Just check out the Padma Shri list for the past decade and see how many people you can recognise for having done something that you respect. Fame, in our time, has acquired a strange fleeting quality. Last week’s famous person is in this week’s kachra bin.
Part of it is due to our attention deficit syndrome. No one has the patience any more to remember anything. Part of it is also due to the fact that people are no longer famous for their actual achievements. They are famous because they have hired the right specialists to manage their fame and public image. Some successes are now even buyable. Honorary doctorates can be acquired today from some of the most prestigious institutions. All you have to do is tap into the right connection, make a donation, and it’s yours. No, it’s not a nice thing I know. But that’s how it’s happening. Can you blame people for being cynical? Anything can be fixed today. Reviews, ratings, awards, prizes, honours. All you need is the right fixer in place.
Even deserving people have to work much harder at being famous. I know amazing people who are hungry for recognition and will do anything for it. I don’t blame them. There’s so much clutter that unless they are noticed, their accomplishments, however remarkable, goes unsung. So images are constantly airbrushed. Faces are botoxed. Bodies are cosmetically redesigned every few days, almost like a change of clothes. Writers, musicians, philosophers, TV anchors, yoga gurus, singers, painters, businessmen, spiritual leaders, they are all being sold on the same premise as we sell movie stars, cricketers, soccer heroes, tattoo artists, hair stylists. So it’s not surprising that we have stopped taking fame seriously. Yet the funny thing is that we can’t live without it either. Imagine how boring the world would be without famous people and their infamous quirks!
As for Obama, poor guy, he must be seriously embarrassed. Someone down the line must have worked a little too hard on the Nobel Prize guys.
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