On his 76th birth anniversary, an open letter to the late John Lennon
Malavika Sangghvi pens a letter to the late John Lennon.
Dear John, It's been so long since you were taken so brutally away from us thirty-six years ago and yet your music, images and words are so palpably with us that it feels like you never left at all.
Again and again, as I watch your images and hear your songs, I find myself mesmerised by you, the caustic, cerebral Beatle, the one who so strikingly evolved, from a moppet-headed cherubic lad to the almost ascetic-looking, gaunt-cheeked apostle of peace and love.
Right from the start, you had always been my favorite, the one who'd won my heart with his words and wit, the one who sketched and drew and turned out books full of wordplay and puns, the one who said and did all the coolest things, the one way ahead of his time.
Of course, as part of the Lennon-McCartney team that wrote such a staggering amount of hits for the world's most successful band, it is difficult to say how much of the collective charisma of your band mates added to your charm and success, but even when you all dressed in identikit dark drainpipe suits and sported the same hair cuts, you were hard to miss.
Your irreverence, spontaneity and mischievous grin in your younger years heralded the iconoclast activist and visionary you grew into.
So many anecdotes, utterances and memories come flooding in on your birthday.
By: Malavika Sangghvi
Source: dna India
