Fathima Idris: The February 2005 issue of the National Geographic had a feature on Shah Rukh Khan and he related the following to the writer:
‘He tells me about the time he was visiting a village in Malaysia. In the afternoon heat, he took a nap by the side of a road and had the sensation of being watched. When he woke up, he opened his eyes to see 60 villagers staring at him intently.
‘A chant went up as they did their best to pronounce his name: "Chalukkhan, Chalukkhan..." Giggling, they led him by the hand inside a house. And then he saw it - a small shrine to him, with pictures and incense.'
I found the whole account quite incredulous at that time and only thought of how conceited he was. Malaysians worshiping him - unbelievable! The story also did not fit in with my perception of his attraction in Malaysia.
To me, he seems to be most popular with the Malays and not the other races; and it would be unthinkable that Malays would have a shrine to him.
And to top his conceit now we have a Datukship conferred on him. Perhaps I must revise my view about the shrine to him. It would look like there might be one somewhere in Malaysia, maybe somewhere in Malacca though.
Do Malaysian have any idea how much bad press Malaysia is getting because of this? Alot let
ReplyDeleteme tell you. Shahrukh Khan is very beloved in many many countries and Malaysians running him
down all over the internet for weeks is only making people think badly about Malaysia. When
France gave SRK their highest civilian honor in 2007 the French were very nice about it and
no one complained and he's never shot any movie or part of a movie in France even. What
type of country gives someone an honor they never asked for then drags their name through
the mud publicly for weeks? I tell you thousands of people worldwide are very upset about
how nasty Malaysians have been to SRK about this. I've been to Malaysia before but I
wouldn't go back now....you people have no idea how to treat people from other
countries....you just call them "aliens" and give them an honor with one hand while you hit
them repeatedly in the face with the other.
The issue is being manipulated by politicians and association leaders for political mileage. Some are envious towards other. I think the Melaka government should stick to their plan to dive datukship to SRK.
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