In this milieu are also remarkable human beings who are treated almost like gods. 
Mr. Rajkumar was someone like that in Karnataka State. He was like MGR to Tamil Nadu and NTR to Andhra Pradesh. But unlike them he never got into politics although he could have easily. There was some discussion in media about South- North India and “culture” difference. Again the presiding deities in many of these channels have got it absolutely wrong. I wonder whether they really know anything about this country or is it high decibel performance, “competence” in front of camera!!. They like to classify people into some kind of manageable entity for their convenience at the expense of reality. Then they discuss, it is a joke. But then prejudices, clichés and stereotypes I am told are TRP busters….so flows the Ganges. Type Y for Yes and N for No. If you don’t then you are missing something big!!.
South India is not a monolith, it is too varied. 
It is not that simplistic. And there is more to India than North-South (more about it sometime later). Apart from being a popular actor Mr. Rajkumar was extremely good human being. Now this is not part of image creation as is the norm nowadays, infact he shunned media as much he could. But although each kannadiga was aware of his greatness not many people outside knew about him much (at least the common people in other part of the country came to know of him when he was kidnapped by Veerappan some years back. I myself came to know about him when he won the Dada Saheb Phalke award). He really was an icon here in Karnataka. One who had connected to millions of people in this prominent southern state, which speaks of him as more than an actor. He somewhere provided the pride for the place and its culture wherein people were increasingly getting alienated. A remarkable man indeed.
The shock expressed by people was spontaneous but the ensuing violence was uncalled for. It could also be “statement” against State abdicating its responsibility with increasing presence of Market forces and affluent "outsiders" as some socioligists are pointing out, but mob psychology is difficult to predict it always carry destructive elements. 
Within an hour of his death made public, tyres were burning every few km. and huge black smoke bellowed around the city.
Mobile phones helped people to know what the problem was, few frantic calls made and news spread. The city was suddenly still. Posters of Rajkumar came up in almost all street corners. It was quite a sight. Then the hooligans took over……things went from bad to worse. Vehicle owners started to paste posters on their vehicles just to save it. A very sad spectacle on the demise of a man who personified humbleness.
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Sometime back I was in Trivandrum and was walking around and saw this crowd at VJT hall. I came to know that it was for the shradhanjali to Devarajan Mashe and they were waiting for the body to arrive. Devarajan mashe was a legend in here and his songs were all-time favorites particularly with the elder generations. When they showed the songs of his in TV I could recall most of them. They were hummed around by elders when I was kid. Like for instance Ommanalle kandu njan….was so very popular. 
His devotional songs were I think more popular. And songs can really bring memories. I recollect a very funny incidence (atleast in retrospect it is funny). We were always supposed to have evening prayers every day (offcourse I rebelled out when was a teenager), it really was distressing at times when are you 6 or 7 and repeating all those names of gods and so on. Now what really happened was one (there were 7-8 taking more than hour) of the prayer we sang was pointed out by a family friend as a movie song (not exactly a song but a prayer in a movie), this was an innovation, being outside kerala. Now there was this predicament whether what is in movie could be used as prayer.
Now that will be like singing film song in front of God!!!. A big no there. Some kind of blasphemy I guess. The whole prayer was dropped after ascertaining whether the movie took it from some religious scripture or whether it was creation of a songwriter, the later was found true!!. I am sure it must been a Devarajan Mashe creation. He was brilliant. My mother was seriously into Malayalam songs and since we were mostly outside kerala I recollect she used to spend substantial part of her afternoons to catch Malayalam songs in radio Ceylon. And like a true keralite she was an ardent admirer of Yesudas (off course MS was the first choice. Aint the day start with Suprabadham!!).
When I was watching the funeral of Rajkumar I was wondering is there anyone in Kerala who can be equated to him?. The same adulation, embedded in the collective psyche. Since most keralites are quite skeptic set of people, movie stars are out. EMS (whatever ideological difference one may have) comes to mind but among the living I think Yesudas does occupy the mind of people to a large extend. He is considered more than a singer. How he was not allowed into the temple (since he is a Christian…kerala temple is sometimes so obnoxiously different from other parts, more about it sometime later) and he later sang the song guruvayoor ambala nadayil…all that is etched in the minds of people. It adds on to his enigma. His hindi movie songs were listened to just because it was Yesudas sung, offcourse he had a more than a decent success in hindi!!. His concerts of Carnatic music(katchery) as well as light music are always house full. I was reading an essay by Suresh Menon on Yesudas recently titled The Voice he writes: “In Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust has his hero’s memories flooding back to him on tasting a kind of cake with his coffee. The smell, the taste, brought it all back. For Malayalis the world over, a Yesudas song does the same thing……he has provided the glimpse of divinity. To paraphrase Goethe, when the mind is at sea, an old song provides a raft.”
And most Yesudas songs of Devarajan Mashe were brilliant. May his soul rest in peace.
