The Fan's Hero

A curious case has been hogging the news, the page-three-news actually. Three days back, a film-star was arrested for assaulting a fan. Fortunately, the fan escaped ‘without grievous injury’. If that has to come out, the assault must have been vicious.

The first day, the papers speculated that it must be a fan gone crazy who had to be put down.

Then, the truth came from the fan’s mouth. It is too bizarre to be untrue.

In an interview, soon after coming out of hospital, the fan admitted to the press he had worshipped his hero, so ardently that he was ‘employed’ to be a part of the superstar’s entourage, like those fans we see at every ground a cricket team plays. Two weeks back, he got a ‘real’ job and a ‘real’ love, he said, and decided to leave his ‘employer’. He should have left without meeting, he wondered aloud to the journalists. The superstar got terribly agitated, abused him and, in front of a large gathering, mimed the many ridiculous ways he used to worship his hero. What could he do other than admit to the crowd, “Yes, I used to do all that.” That somehow triggered the assault.

Whatever happened to the hero, the papers are thrashing the life out of that before the news meets its end. Has he been failing at the box office? Is he insecure? Surely, he has other equally devoted fans or did he see the departure of one as the departure of all? Was he too embarrassed to ask his fan not to leave him, that is, if he so desperately needed him? Was he embarrassed about his own inadequacy?

I like the paper that sought to make a parable or allegory out of this. In every relationship, is there not such an ending lurking within, the article asks. Baloney, you might say, but let’s see what you will do when the last person walks out on you.