Hindustan Times
Divine comedy
The Issue: The sainthood of Obama
The Soundtrack: Spirit in the sky
The Mayurvihar Bengali Post-Puja Cultural Association (MBPPCA) was toying with the idea of awarding Barack Obama a lifetime achievement award. Now it seems that the Nobel Academy has pipped it to the post. Which is a pity because the MBPPCA, after portraying the asura being impaled by Durga during the Pujas two years ago, had run out of ideas by which its members could show the ‘war-mongering, hegemonistic, so-what-if-he’s-a-friend-of-India?’ George W. Bush as the embodiment of pure evil — and thereby showcase their own sense of goodness.
So when Barack Obama became the president of the easiest country to blame for all the ills of the universe, the president, treasurer and convenor of MBPPCA were heart-broken. Rahul Gandhi is now being considered, although as some contributors to the MBPPCA kitty from the United States have questioned the global reach of the Indian leader in bringing peace on Earth.
But on a completely tangential note, did Barack Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? I think he did. As my cigarette buddy Mukul Kesavan pointed out (from the deep reaches of Kovalam’s beaches, no less), the reason that Obama was given the Nobel even though he hasn’t spent a year in the Big Chair is that “next year they’ll give him the Economics prize for pulling the world out of recession, and the year after that, the Literature one for his first book, and the year after that (so he gets elected again) the prize for Medicine on account of the Healthcare Bill that he’s able to pull off. They’ll give him the Science prizes when he upsets the quantum paradigm by walking on water.” Knowing Mukul, methinks his comments seem to suggest that he doesn’t think Obama deserved the Nobel.
I think what he’s got sentimental about – Mukul, that is, not Obama – is that he believes in the shining powers and virtues of the Nobel Peace Prize, while I think it’s just under the Oscars and above the Emmys. (The Literature Nobel, on the other hand, I think is very big deal, as unlike most other poppins, it marks a writer’s oeuvre and not one particular book – thus me practising from a rather tender age before I had written a single novel giving answers in an interview after winning a Literature Nobel in the confines of my bathroom while sitting on the pot.)
What does get my goat is the way people – including the MBPPCA people – have made a deity out of a pretty competent man. It’s like the whole Rahul Gandhi thing being replicated on a giant, global magnified scale (thankfully minus the family name tag). All this jingbang reminds me of that 1969 one-hit wonder by Norman Greenbaum called ‘Spirit in the Sky’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAwo-F9CpVE), possibly the most rock-friendly ‘Jesus song’ to date.
What Greenbaum does is to take the Jesus figure in his song – incidentally named ‘Jesus’ – and even makes a lowdown atheist nod my head to the heavenly guitar riff. “When I die and they lay me to rest/ Gonna go to the place that’s the best/ When I lay me down to die/ Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky,” he sings, with a passion not too unlike that shown by not only the Nobel Committee but also by pretty much everyone who wants to advertise their ability to spot a good man (and therefore be a good man themselves) in the Spirit in the White House.
(6 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Indrajit Hazra on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Filed under Music · Tagged Durga Pujas, Mayurvihar Bengali Post-Puja Cultural Association, MBPPCA, Nobel Academy, Nobel Peace Prize
nice post. but why don’t you reply to readers anymore?
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