Persons of the Year (2015)

This is my third PotY post. For 2013, I published the post at the end January 2014. This seemed to be an appropriate time as it provided a good retrospective for the entire year. 

For 2014, I published the post two weeks before the end of the year. This also seemed to be an appropriate time as I knew that no other person could be considered as significant for the entire year or most of the year after appearing in just the final two weeks. 

For 2015, I am publishing it much earlier. I am still confident that no other person will appear in the final 1.5 months of the year, but it still feels to be too soon. Nevertheless, I am publishing it now. The reason is that Indiblogger and Tata Motors' Made of Great campaign have combined to provide an opportunity and incentive for me to write, and the campaign fits in nicely with my annual post.

Tata Motors' brand ambassador is Lionel Messi. I acknowledge that Mr. Messi is a great football /  soccer player and that he has undoubtedly inspired many to pursue excellence in football or other fields of endeavour. However, even though Joe Montana and Barry Bonds inspired me to become interested in American football and baseball respectively, and that Mohammed Ali is perhaps the greatest athlete ever, I shy away from naming athletes as PotY as sports seems to be just bread and circuses.

I believe that I mentioned in my first post--and I hope that I have certainly conveyed in posts throughout this blog--that I will not consider politicians as PotY or as being Made of Great. Politicians are certainly noteworthy and have a tremendous impact on the lives of people (although, of course, it is always deleterious), but I would prefer not to acknowledge their existence. I have written several blog posts on things that I dislike or detest but writing about something as repulsive as a political ruler or a government "worker" is something that I would prefer not to spend one additional second in doing.

I feel that I should also not include actors or celebrities. It seems that they help others or engage in a cause only if they become leading actors. In other words, they are not truly Made of Great but only become so when it is expeditious for them to do so. Moreover--and all things being equal--I would prefer to name someone who is not especially famous, someone who may have been overlooked as a Person of the Year or being Made of Great.

At the beginning of the year, I felt that I should name someone who is like myself: an expat or a traveller. However, I felt that it would be difficult to find such a worthy candidate, and I never did the research for this possibility so I basically abandoned this theme.

In August and September, I felt that I should continue with a theme of the 2014 post--of writing about people whom I know very well--as my wife (Indian) and brother (non-Indian) may have quite literally saved my life. The instructions for the Tata Motors' writing campaign indicates that the person(s) should be Made of Great and that s/he or they should be well known to me. Although my wife and brother certainly meet these requirements, I prefer to write about this event in a separate, upcoming post.

Having written all of this--and even though it contradicts what I wrote about actors and celebrities--I am naming an actor as the Indian PotY and someone who has become famous (and in a very worthy way) as the non-Indian PotY, both of whom I consider as being Made of Great.

Instead, I am naming Shahrukh Khan as being the 2015 Indian PotY and Made of Great. I confess that I am ambivalent about naming him for two reasons. First and foremost, I am naming him because of his comments that he made on his 50th birthday--on 2 November--simply a few weeks ago. I feel that the reason for naming someone for PotY should be the achievements of all or most of the year. Nevertheless, his statements were very important and significant, and I could not think of anyone or anything else which could match that,

The second reason is that Caroline has some antipathy toward celebrities or, at least, the unjust attention that is given to them. She points out that if a celebrity becomes pregnant then that will generate news for nine months. Yet, if an "ordinary" woman becomes pregnant then no one will ever know save for her family and close friends. She feels that this is extremely unfair. Having written that, Shahrukh's comments are  still intrinsically worthy.
I do think though, that he had an inaccurate perspective, although this may be a case of a glass being half full or half empty. He commented that there is a growing intolerance in India, while many people who responded to this accurately (I feel) stated that India has always been a tolerant nation but that it is less so now with more isolated cases of intolerance.
Regardless, SRK does seem to have been proven correct or, at least, his comments were never refuted. The ruling political party did the only thing that thugs know, which is to resort to violence and to imply that they would be glad to send SRK to Pakistan as he was "obviously""unpatriotic" to India.
It is undeniable that his comments have stirred up a debate, which is always a good thing. I welcome comments and questions at this blog as I desire verification of my beliefs, or to have evidence presented which refutes them as I always desire to be factual, objective and rational. I am happy that SRK was able to do this as he is Made of Great.
Again, what I inferred from the Tata Motors' campaign is that I ought to know the person well. I know of SRK, but I do not know him, and he certainly has never invited me over to his home for dinner. However, I do want to mention that I did meet him in San Francisco in late 1995 or early 1996 (in the early years of his film career) at a concert he headlined there. I knew that Caroline was an enormous fan of his ever since he appeared in the television series Circus (or perhaps it was earlier series Fauji). I had obtained a back-stage pass so one of the organizers, at the appropriate time, took me backstage where I was able to get Shahrukh to autograph a poster of him that I had. I then framed it and presented it to Caroline when I visited her a few months later.

As with SRK, she has stirred up a great deal of debate, most or all of which has been favourable and productive. With her survival, beliefs and actions, she has almost single-handedly beaten her oppressors by changing the perspectives of others. She rightly deserved the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, unlike the farce of the 2009 prize.
She is truly Made of Great and I hope that there will be more people like her. I shall look forward toward writing my 2016 PotY post once I know of them.

CONTEST: What do you think of Tata Motors' association with Lionel Messi?
If there are three or more comments at this post (see the box below) by 26 November 2015 answering this question then I shall award the writer of the best comment an Amazon voucher worth INR750 (about USD11.33 according to xe.com on 18 November).
For more information, see either or both of the links provided at the beginning of this post, or at the Google+ page.