A harmless figure of speech pointing to incongruity of action and results that Irony is , it has some stark illustrations in real life .
Christopher Reeve , the tall handsome actor , played ‘Superman’ in many a movie and its sequels becoming famous as Clark Kent , the superhuman do-gooder ,while ridding the world of many of its tyrants , terrorists and megalomaniacs . Reeve , the Superman , as fate would have it , was dealt a severe blow when in an equestrian competition , his horse pulled him down breaking his spinal cord for life . The resultant paralysis confined him for many years to a wheel chair . Isn't it just plain irony that it had to happen to 'Superman' – whose massive fan following of awe-struck movie-goers gave his producers superhuman returns at the box office for years . The 'man of steel' died early , at the age of 52 , serving probably as a warning , that , man is after all mortal .
The world has long endured the ridiculousness of the slavery system even after it was officially abolished by Abraham Lincoln centuries ago . Here was an entire civilization of people from an continent considered ‘dark’ , pre-historic and primitive . Michael Jackson has tried hard to run away from his colour by cosmetic surgeries , Cassius Clay threw his Olympic gold medial into the Hudson river and converted to Islam on being called a ‘black nigger ‘ after having won the World Boxing Olympic gold medal for the US . The latest episode of Big brother boots out a contestant who calls another a ‘nigger’ . Alex Haley’s autobiographical book ‘roots ‘ traces the history of Blacks over centuries as an oppressed clan , operating on the fringes of society , fighting for acceptance . So the most ironical achievement of it all is the fact that the most premium , upper-class , uber-cool and super-richest sport of them all , Golf , is dominated by a black - Tiger Woods !
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , became the 8th Prime minister of Pakistan after having been the president for 2 years . A keen lawyer , he had earned his spurs under the military dictatorship of Gen Ayub Khan , who India had defeated in the 1971 indo-pak war . After having won landslide vistories in Pakistani elections , he claimed his prime ministerial berth for a second term . But that was not to be . Gen Zia-Ul-Haq , his chief of army staff , de-recognised his government , arrested him in the middle of the night and threw him into jail .Despite international condemnation , Zia made sure the popular Bhutto was hanged . Zia-ul-Haq then re-interpreted Islam to favour the military , unleased a wave of terror into India , encouraged the influx of refuges from Afghanistan into Pakistan siding the US in the proxy war with the Soviets in Afghanistan . His helping the Afghani Mujhahideen fight the Russians ensured Pakistan would become a permanent US ally . He created a larger than life image for himself . I distinctly remember watching the Asian games hockey match between India and Pakistan in 1982 that he came to attend . Pakistan defeat India 8-0 in that match . The goalkeeper Negi was psyched that Zia was in the stadium and gave in to all the attacks from their side . Such was his demeanor . Ironically , for all his power , he had the worst death a political leader can have . He was blown into bits mid-air in an aircraft crash . Not a piece of his body was found . He couldn’t even be given a leader’s farewell like his slain adversary Bhutto had got .
The US was formed on the basis of everything the England did not stand for . The traffic was reverse , cars were all right hand drives , the shakespearean spellings were dropped – colour became color etc, the dress sense are informal , jews were accepted with open arms , excellence was encouraged and any form of dynastic rule was discouraged . Yet , ironically it is heading for a dynastic rule – eight years of Bush senior were followed by eight years of Clinton , followed by eight years of Bush junior and probably eight years of Hillary Clinton now . Dynasty !
Michail Gorbachev , the first post-communism President of the USSR , had faced a very tough childhood under Stalin when his grandfather was arrested for hoarding grain in their farm . Passports were regulated , so he did not have one for many years and he had not visited any other country . He became the President after Konstantin Chernenko died in 1985 . His lifetime in Russian politics was dedicated to building a stronger USSR , aimed at achieving twice the per capita income of the US . He was the first party leader who was born after the revolution and the youngest general secretary of the communist party . He used his visionary concepts of ‘Uskoreniya’ –acceleration of economic development , ‘glasnost’ – openness , ‘perestrioka’ – restructuring of the economy to build a new powerful Soviet Union . He started the concept of free speech in Russia , looked west for inspiration , traveled and interacted with world leaders to expand his vision . Yet ironically , the very foundation of his vision saw the absolute reverse effect – the Soviet Union dis-integrated dramatically and broke into its various sub-nations and creation of many new countries with independent heads of state and policies . In just five years , he had dissolved what had taken seventy years to build , he lost control , his deputy Boris Yelstin openly confronted him , leading to absolute anarchy and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics splintered into many many different countries . Hs stood for re-election as President , but won 0.05% of the votes . And he is back to what he was doing earlier – lecturing in universities around the world . A man who started something so huge that it consumed him and his entire country , becoming larger than he had ever envisioned .
Olof Palme , Sweden’s President for 18 years , created a great country whose principles of social democracy resulted in enormous prosperity . Sweden has produced a strong economy creating many multinational brands like Saab , Ikea , Ericsson and it has the longest life expentancies in the world , lowest employment , inflation , infant mortality , national debt and cost of living . Sweden has also the lowest instances of crime in the world . Ironically , Olof Palme , who built a crime free Sweden , and was generally without bodyguards was shot dead as he was walking back from a movie with his wife . He was the first and only ever person to be ever assasinated in Sweden . The incident had a deep impact on me and I remember thinking about it for many many days . Ah ! the ways of irony .
Amitabh Bachchan , was rejected by All India Radio when he went for an audition to do a program on radio many years back . Today , most movie-goers love his deep baritone and more than half of radio commercials imitate his voice . Alexander , the great , conquered half the world with his famed conquests , but died of a mosquito bite in Babylon .
Bobby McFaren , sang the song ‘Don’t Worry , Be Happy ‘ which was featured in the 1998 Tom Cruise movie ‘Cocktail’ and to date is one of my personal favourite numbers . It was the no1 US pop hit and won the Grammy for The Song of the year 1988 . Lots of rumors floated a year later that Bobby McFaren had committed suicide . That he didn't was true , but the rumors spread like wildfire suggesting that he had attempted to kill himself .
That would have been the ultimate irony .
