I don’t have much to say on what killed Jackson. Disease, drugs or debt-as reports say. It could be anything from loneliness to loss of motivation. But honestly, these are merely the symptoms of the bigger disease that killed him- the cult of celebrity.

As a music professional, Jackson was an all time great. He was a genius in true sense. My favorite Jackson track was “Don’t stop till you get enough”…sometimes I really wonder-did he get enough in life-or he would not have stopped.

Although MJ did not have any direct bearings on my music, who knows the tunes which we grew up humming might have seeped in through some unseen way at some point of time-somewhere in me too.

A TV report that claimed that Mithun Chakraborty got some of his moves from MJ. It came with the sudden realization that Jackson, his style, dance and music has so much been part of our lives that we fail to notice them!

My earliest exposure to MJ was when my elder sister would get the yearly Grammy awards winners' compilation cassette and I'd listen to them on her Walkman for hours.

I was such a great fan of Jackson and wanted to ape him so diligently that I tried to moonwalk in school and felt happy thinking it worked until I saw Anand, my classmate, do it. Man, he was wicked!

MJ is perhaps the only mega star who is well known in very nook and corner of the world, even though his music might not have been understood or gained popularity.

God knows what went wrong with Jackson! Sadly, he seemed to have lost hold of that which I think he did best - making good music. But this is perhaps what we call the ‘curse of celebrity’. A lot is expected of you and sometimes you deliver it too, but you are also made to pay a heavy price for it. Jackson perhaps paid the price of his iconic stature.

When scandals come up in one’s idol’s life it is challenging to remain a fan, but you hold on if you really love your hero. Despite the upheavals in his life and changes in his personality, his music remained the same- enticing, enchanting and enamoring.

Jackson’s legacy to the world, after his sad and sudden demise, would no doubt be his timeless music, but his life has also taught an invaluable lesson and showed what stardom can do to a person.

Elvis Presley is perhaps the only one who can be compared in life and achievements to Jackson. But in death, Jackson surpassed him. The kind of reaction that reverberated across the world after the demise of the mega star was enough to prove the magnitude of his existence. He was truly an 'icon' before Windows disemboweled the word. For me Jackson is deathless as long as his music lives on.