The Overshadowed Stars…

Many times a person excelling in his field fails to get due recognition and rewards because of some one performing even better during the same times. History is full of such people, who deserved more from life than just the occasional praise which they received from some passionate critics and admirers.

The world usually appreciates and admires only the number 1 in every race. Be it the race for stardom, some sports, acting, politics or any such field. The people who participated in the race and stood 2^nd, 3^rd … will be forgotten very soon. That is if they get recognized in the first place. This phenomenon may be a true motivator for the successful ones, but is too harsh for others.

Rahul Dravid is one such cricket player, who did not get due recognition for his contribution to cricket. He has saved several matches from clutches of defeat at various times during his career. He has also got several records to his credit. Let us not go into the long list of his records, as they are readily available on the Cricinfo and Wikipedia. But these achievements have not given him the stardom given to Sachin Tendulkar.  The world always favored and talked about Sachin only.

Even at the beginning of the now infamous England tour of 2011, people were speculating Sachin’s 100^th century. Sadly, it never came. But silently, Dravid hit a few centuries in the meantime. Those centuries at least helped India in reducing the intensity of defeats and rightfully earned him the ‘Man of the Series’ award.

He has been a true gentleman of the game, never appearing in any controversies. He played the game with a passion and in its true spirit. He did not attempt at any time to build up personal records for himself. As the management gurus point out, make your work your passion and the success and records follow themselves. There were times, when he was down and out. At such moments, instead of getting demoralized and dejected, he worked hard and bounced back with his performance. Again, in management lingo, the greatness does not lie in ‘not falling’ but in ‘rising every time we fall’. 

He was fondly referred to as ‘The wall’, ‘Mr. Dependable’ by the English media while Hindi media often referred to him as ‘Sriman Bharosemand’. These titles do not come in a day and are not conferred on anyone just like that. One has to strive for that.

Today that he has announced his retirement; India is losing an unsung hero in the game of cricket. The nation has got more from him than what he got from the nation. Had he been born in a different era, maybe he might have received more acclaim and praise from the Indian cricket fans.

Asha Bhosle is one singer who has suffered under the success of her sister Lata Mangeshkar. No one disputes the supremacy of Lata Mangeshkar in singing. She is conferred with several awards and liked by many. However, there are some reports which suggest that the means adopted by her to attain this position were not truly fair. In her peak period, she used to pressurize the music directors to sign her only otherwise she would never sing for them again. That has put the other singers of that period at a great disadvantage, as they could not demonstrate their talent fully for lack of opportunity.

In male category, Udit Narayan and Kumar Shanu started almost at the same time. Because of multiple reasons including the meritorious ones, Kumar Shanu got much fanfare than Udit Narayan. That put Udit Narayan in an ‘also ran’ category. However, in a rare gesture of greatness, Kumar Shanu declined to be nominated for Filmfare awards, as he had won it for incredible 5 consecutive years. Of these 5 years, on two occasions, all the 5 nominations were songs sung by Kumar Shanu. Now that Kumar Shanu has faded out, Udit Narayan is finding some moments of appreciation. 

In politics, I would say, LK Advani is a big victim of this phenomenon. He always had to work under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership. Apart from the plus and minus of both these leaders, the fact always remains that if he was in politics in some other era, he would have definitely got more opportunities than what he has got till now. And now he has become too old, to be considered for the top position, what with Narendra Modi being mentioned in a US congressional report as likely candidate for the Prime ministerial position in 2014.

Dharmendra was one such personality who had to be always under the shadow of Amitabh Bachchan. Ever since Zanjeer was released in 1973, Big B got the tag of Angry young man, which snatched the stardom from other stars like Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna etc. They were reduced to playing a second fiddle to him in the multi starrer movies.

In Tennis, Mahesh Bhoopathi has always been considered as second to Leander paes, while the fact remains that he had been almost equal or even better than him. But being active in same period, there is bound to be a comparison and the first individual Olympic medal has put Leander ahead of Mahesh.

In this regard, all the Congress veteran leaders are perennially under a curse. They are never considered for a Party President or Prime Ministerial positions, as these positions are strictly reserved for the Gandhi family. However, there is no sympathy for them, as they have brought this situation upon themselves by their own actions of unparalleled acts of sycophancy and hypocrisy.