Kannada Actor Raj Kumar Dies and Indians in Bangalore Lose Their Minds

I hope Amitabh stays healthy (for India's sake).

People died in Bangalore as thousands of fans mourned the loss of actor and Kannada screen-icon Raj Kumar. I for one have never seen any of the man's movies because I am either too young and/or don't speak more than a couple of dirty words in Kannada, but given the outpouring by fans, this guy must have been good, because if you measure your life's achievement by how many people die as a result of your own death, this guy is going to be tough to match.

As of today, eight people died while "thousands of angry fans smashed cars, burnt buses and battled with the police on Thursday." The reason — they were being restricted from seeing the procession or the star at his home.

The city of Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, also ceased to function normally as virtually every institution, i.e. all MNCs, bio-tech, banks and private companies and state-owned enterprises, educational institutions, markets and restaurants, closed in observance of the actor's funeral and last rites.

1500 IT companies shut down including India's big guns such as Infosys and Wipro, thereby giving the day off to 300,000 employees in honor of the fallen star.

This is perplexing and provides insights on many fronts:

- Darker skin pigment = More likely to act like an idiot and/or riot and burn crap. Actually, this is probably not a skin color issue (although there seems to be some anecdotal proof indicating it might be) and more of a fundamental have vs. have-not issue. Those who don't have somehow have been brainwashed to believe that burning a car is in some way going to help them achieve some random nebulous objective. This is like those little Palestinian kids who throw rocks at Israeli tanks. Not only is it pointless, but it's usually you, the rock thrower, who gets hurt. But at least they are fighting for freedom. These people died trying to see an actor. A dead one.

- There are lots of dumb Indians. Yes I read about all the smart Indians making strides in business, politics, art, etc and I'm heartened and hopeful for more successes like theirs, but just given the sheer volume of us as a people, it seems entirely possible that there are more dumb Indians than the total population of the USA (270 million). There maybe more dumb Chinese but they never riot and do stupid things like this. Then again, they may want to but if they were to try, the Chinese government might not respond very nicely. Law & order does have its price, right?

- Will time actually stop when Amitabh dies? If this was the reaction for a Kannada actor, India is going to be in a world of hurt when the Big B kicks it.

- To hell with productivity. How does the hub and growth engine of the Indian New Economy completely shut down for a day to mourn an actor's death? Name a street or theater after him or something, but the show must go on. I wonder what that one day cost the country and those companies in terms of revenue, profit, etc.