Dear Heath…… An Eulogy

“I miss Heath”…. I remember exclaiming this to an acquaintance a few days back.. The reply was a stone-cold, sloppy one- “Umm.. The Joker guy right?” For a second I didn’t quite know how to react.  You know those moments when you are casually asked, “Are you happy?” It was a bit like that…Situations where you have an insistent urge of saying both “yes” and “no”...

Of course he was the joker guy..Or better to put it this way, he was the actor whom everyone doubted when he was signed to play the Joker in Nolan’s The Dark Knight and who went ahead to immortalize that very role. He was the actor who did what Marlon Brando did to Vito Corleone or Kevin Spacey did to Keyser Soze. He was the actor who became one of the most unforgettably admirable and detestable screen villains of all time.

Today morning, as I got up and switched on my phone, the date got me.. I knew its that day of the year again- the day when my faith on the functioning of the Universe feels more threatened than any other day of the year.

January 22, 2015..
Seven years?

That’s a little more than half a decade right?

So, Heath’s been gone for such a long time?

I didn’t know for how long I stood there staring at that date but slowly I felt as I was once again being taken back to the Oscar ceremony of 2009 when Heath’s family received his Oscar on his behalf. I remembered how much that moment made me and how much it broke me. I remembered how proud I felt for this man who wasn’t even there to receive the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his swansong performance…

We will never forget you Heath.. This figure will turn from 7 to 70 but the world will still be grieving your loss just the same. We will miss you the same.. We will watch The Dark Knight for another awful number of times and be shut up in inexplicable admiration just the same. Thank you for giving us an eternity within the numbered days. Thank you for being The Joker. Thank you for showing that true genius can never be overrated…

"I only do this because I'm having fun. The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away........"                                                               - Heath Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008)