December 8th

She hated loud music which was always on, She hated and objected to their posters all over the walls of my room. Mom complained to everybody who came to my house about my attitude and arrogance. One priest who came to see her said that there are evil spirits in my room.

1967 things went quiet after Sgt. pepper. I went quiet too.
I was 19. Thirteen years flew. I was going nowhere.

Mom was sick, bed ridden, I sat on her bed, She knew something seriously went wrong.

She asked what happened, I said Lennon died, he was shot.

"tera beedal ?' {your Beatle ? ) she asked, 

I said yes.
She placed her loving hand on my head and caressed my hair. She knew how I felt. By then I had a long and disheveled beard, jobless, aimless, I had just resigned my job.
December 8th 1980. I was 32.
Moin was born nine days later.

25 years now and it is still so fresh, all the major TV networks paid homage on Dec. 8th, they never forget each year. I wanted to write but did not feel like. I was confused. Still not sure if I am proud of his influence or ashamed of it. Life took a nose dive and it never took off, I remained aimless.

I doubt any one in history has influenced the world in the most passive manner the way Lennon did. I know that a lot better music came before and after Lennon.
If it was not music alone, then what was it ?

If not the music what really changed the world ?
I do not know. I really do not know.
It was like the mind broke off all its shackles and came out free. Eastern philosophy did not change him, he brought a revival in eastern thinking which was slowly dying under the impact of fast spreading western culture. All the swamis and guru's who were sleeping in relative obscurity, suddenly woke up and cashed in.
He did not come to India to revive anything, his presence did everything. He was blissfully unaware of the impact he would leave behind. And many Indians are not aware what really brought the change. 

Was this change any good ?

i do not know

No one was conscious of what really brought the change.

Like me there are millions of others who walked on the road with John Lennon beside them. He was not a guide but he was there in our lives, a very strange influence. I learnt nothing from him but he was all over me and millions like me.

If you admire some one please stop right there, don't go any further, it will hurt you. It was not a good idea reading Lennon's biography, there are many many of them. I still regret reading it.