Connecting the dots

It may sound a bit contrived comparing two celebrities who’ve died in a period of less than a year from each other. And yet, in many ways their lives were as similar on the inside as they were on the outside. Steve Jobs and Rajesh Khanna. I can already hear the scoffing Jobs fan, but that’s not completely out of character with being a Jobs fan.

In the beginning, both their careers (inextricable from their lives as celebrities) followed a similar trajectory: a spiralling rise to the top. Rajesh Khanna, with the crinkle in his eyes, tilt of his neck and mouthing cloying dialogues exploded on the scene when stars from the previous era were on the retreat. An outsider who carved out his owned space. His super stardom generated the sort of mania with no precedent in Bollywood, and found parallel only in the treatment of rock stars in the West. It may not be a co-incidence that he named his first born Twinkle.

Steve Jobs ascent too was meteoric. He was David to IBM’s Goliath. His penetrating gaze and handsome face would change the landscape of personal computing initially and later would revolutionize the music listening experience. Apple was Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs was what he was. A lifelong maverick and erstwhile hippie who dabbled with drugs and loved Bob Dylan. He fit into the script just fine. An outlier CEO with a counter-culture past who hated the herd but had swarming fans. To them, he was art’s revenge on commerce.

                 

What followed, in Khanna's case was a swift decline into obsolescence and pitiful decay. His magic waned, and age made his mannerisms unbearable. With Jobs, it was not so much of a decline, but humiliation and then fall. He was fired from the company he set up. Thankfully, he was able to resurrect his career unlike Khanna who could never outgrow or reinvent his on-screen image.       

However what is compelling is to discover that both were raised by foster parents, having abandoned by their biological ones. This early fear of desertion may have heightened an instinct for survival and caused the inability to trust others and when feeling threatened, launched a pre-emptive, feral attack on rivals.

Sample this from Steve Jobs about Bill Gates. "Bill is basically unimaginative," Jobs told Isaacson in his biography, "and has never invented anything original, which I think is why he's more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas." The intensity of hatred in those words is unusual. Even John Scully, who was responsible for his ouster from Apple was tastelessly lampooned in front of an applauding gathering.   

Now Rajesh Khanna. “Aise attan button aate jaate rahenge, lekin Rajesh Khanna ko koi chhoo bhi nahi sakta. Main kya aise aire gaire logon se darr jaaunga? Aap log agar sochte bhi ho toh aap ko humaara darbar chhodna padega,” this was Rajesh Khanna on Amitabh Bachchan, before Bachchan made it big.

One departure about their initial days was that while Rajesh Khanna was adopted by affluent parents, Jobs’ upbringing was strewn with hardships which he recounted in his now famous Harvard speech. Perhaps lessons learned during that period was the difference between Jobs’ second coming and Khanna’s glory slip sliding away.    

Their last days were very different of course. However, both looked tragically unwell. Unkempt beards and frail frames.

Rajesh Khanna died twice; Jobs’ legend is still alive, yet to withstand the test of time.