Eternal Fanclub Wars

For every generation there are heroes. Be it sport, music, cinema, business or even politics. If there is one aspect in which heroes really endear themselves to human emotions is that they are fodder for coffee-table discussions. Of the battleground kinds.

Obviously not everyone can become a hero - what fun is it if everyone was a hero?! Whom would we gossip about?
And so people become fans of heroes.
And it is here that the topic becomes interesting - passionate fans will swear by their heroes.

And these make for fascinating discussions.

Take the case of the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal rivalry.
The Federer fans are a combination of the uninitiated, the moms, and ofcourse the experts. The Nadal ones are the folks who like to be called underdogs, who crave for an anti-hero. And so the debates go on: Who is better? Who has the fastest serve? Who deserves the right to be called the real no#1? Who has a prettier girlfriend? Who has more money? The debate ends when both of them lose and some unheralded Novak wins.

Or the case of Mohd Rafi and Kishore Kumar.
Left largely to the elders in the family, these debates take great shape when two of them get down together for a Sunday breakfast and need a topic to converse. The women largely care less. The men are passionate. The Rafi fans swear by his renditions whereas the Kishore Kumar ones find it hard to trump the evergreen classics with Kishore Kumar himself in front of the cameras and serenading his women. The younger generation has tried to pit AR Rahman with folks like Pritam or Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy- but it hasnt worked. Fanboy wars work when there are 2 of a kind!

Then there are politicians. Akhilesh Yadav versus Rahul Gandhi.
One is a winner. One is always trying to win. Again it is the grand old men of the house that seem to have an opinion on what kind of policies are required in UP that can change the way their creaking chairs can be fixed.

For the women there are other kinds of debates.
Like Anandi vs Parvati vs Tulsi. Each one portrays a different kind of woman-following, and triggers in the lady an expression of approval or discontent based on what show she likes more and what her fellow kitty-party women follow. I love to see the expression on my mom's face when one of these lead women characters on the show is manipulated by other women. She almost sheds a tear!!

There is something for the kindergarten kids too. Batman vs Superman. Barbie vs (well!) Kent (now thats a bit funny!).

And some for the techie geeks: iPhone vs Android, Mac vs Windows, Apple vs Samsung...

Then there are the cricket fans.
The 'Is Sachin the greatest cricketer?' versus 'Is it Dravid?' debates. Oh give me a break! I mean really? Smart tip: you know who is the nerd in the group if he/she starts talking about Dravid in the face of Sachin. However the more interesting debates are the ones between father-son or uncle-nephew. The older generation paints this beautiful picture of Gavaskar and his sublime grace in the face of the youngster's craze for Sachin (or now a Kohli), and it takes some mindblowing hot dosas from the lady of the house to get them to forget talking cricket for a while. Of late there is discussion if Laxman was better than Dravid, and believe me I heard one of my relatives giving Laxman a better score because his wife looked more beautiful than Dravid's. LoL!!

But its fun. Apart from the rise of a few ounces of adrenalin, these characters touch our lives in more ways than we think. There is something to discuss, to chat, to feel for, and sometimes even to win some brownie points for breaking the ice. So the next time you hear a debate between Aamir Khan vs Sharukh Khan vs Salman Khan be sure to talk passionately about atleast 2 of them and negate the other - that is when your coffee will get warmer!

Cheers!
(PS: picture sourced from the internet)