Big B At 80

It's difficult to remember exactly how big a fan of megastar Amitabh Bachchan I was when I was growing up. That's because there was also Pele. Then Cruyff. Then Sting and The Police. Zeenat Aman somewhere in there. Followed later by plenty others including his Airness. Plus Bolt. I do recall perfectly though that in the 1970s and early 1980s when I saw him on a movie poster I had to go see that flick. And boy was that a treat! 

One of the most exciting moments about my connection with AB was when our parents told us that they had a secret to tell us: Big B was coming to Mauritius! Fate would have it otherwise though. AB got hurt on the set of Coolie and almost lost his life in July 1982. It's great that he recovered and went on to do so much work. Watching the movies of the Angry Young Man who Truffaut dubbed a one-man industry is great but adding a listen of him talk about his craft and life trajectory is priceless.

2016: The Year in Review

Q1: Bowie dead. Rain shut downs Mauritius, again. Ish will sue investigators. What Labour DNA is made up of. Obama in Havana. Can't count on Vishnu for an economic miracle.

Q2: Pythaghoras in boots gone. Doves cry. Leicester does twice better than points target. Private sector has no monopoly of common sense. The Greatest dies. Union not exactly happy with former advisor. Top three general elections. Mauritius has more important things to worry about than Brexit.

Q3. Jesse passes away. Poverty far from being eradicated. Galileo hops to Jupiter with two buddies. Gisele walks. Usain bolts to record wins. Budget misses boat. Shoppers avoid meat. Policy errors cause for massive poverty. Quieting the clock of our constitution.

Q4. Trump chances are real. Two years gone and still no miracle. Unions stop signing of controversial TISA agreement. How much we can learn from the US election process. Sithanen toohrooh approaches a trillion rupees. Rain shortens Porlwi by light. The Donald is Potus.

Be like Johan

Be like Pele for sure. But when I kept seeing the elegant Dutchman on the cover of football magazines I wanted to be like Cruyff too. Magazines had to be purchased if he was on the posters neatly folded in the middle. Which were immediately pulled out and opened wide. And greeted with an expressive taaaaaarrr! I had no clue what total football was about. But that hardly mattered. What did was that he was awesome. And who doesn't want to be awesome? Of course later -- much later -- when you're smart enough you understand what he was up to. Some saw a Pythaghoras in boots. Olsson didn't see anything. Nureyev something else. He thought that No. 14 should have been a dancer. What the hell do you think he was doing on the pitch Rudolf? Gone too soon. Smoking kills.

And we lost Zaha Hadid too. I wasn't really familiar with her work. Or so I thought. But it's almost impossible not to have come across one of her landmark buildings. Like if you're a fan of Reinhold Messner it will not take you that long before you bump into the name of the trailblazing architect. Her work reminds me of another game-changer: Oscar Niemeyer. And what do you do when an engineer says it can't be done? "Sack the engineer". Thank you Zaha.

All of this has put me in the mood for some Space Oddity.