Jayalalithaa dies at 68: A person who had no one, leaves seven million in tears

An unparalleled life has come to an end. Losing her father at the age of two — an age at which she probably would not have even remembered his face, she never hesitated to share her opinion about his extravagant lifestyle leading them to financial troubles, even though it would all have been based on hearsay. That was J Jayalalithaa aka Amma for millions of Tamilians. She was made of contradicting opinions, but ones she held fast to and fought like a tigress to defend. A scholarly student and a rank-holder in school, Amma probably was at peace holding such opinions to herself and transporting herself to imaginary worlds through her reading. But then it was destined that a nation had to cry one day. A reluctant actress, a consummate one at that, Jayalalithaa was a more than a man in a world of men. Her real character showed in certain nuances of any role she played, although the script drafted as her the typical woman who will ultimately walk the path behind her leading man. Paired against MG Ramachandran in as many as 28 films, the scripts of which were always templated, Jayalalithaa stood out in that in defying the man as against the weepy, clingy heroines who were otherwise casted in his other films. No wonder the girl caught the eye of the clairvoyant he was to be. MGR brought her into the ugly world of politics which was only worse than the one in which she participated earlier. Politics is cruel and thankless and here she was with gentle eyes hiding a steely determination inside. There were friends who turned foes and there were foes who later became slaves. None of her previous scriptwriters could have imagined such a script. Cinema is an illusion, but even to them, such magic was something beyond their realms of thought. She trusted and failed. She doubted and was punished. But the woman inside was only growing stronger. When she lost her only patron and had to stand beside his body for two full days without food or water — showing no discomfort or pain from physical abuse, she would not have thought the person inside her was going to fight all these adversities in her own way and come to rest in the same place one day. [caption id=“attachment_3141754” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] File image of J Jayalalithaa. AFP[/caption] Her politics is debatable, her vengeance was legendary, her spirit was indomitable but no one can deny the fact that she was a force Tamil Nadu could not have done without. She was a constant thorn in the flesh of her enemies whether she plotted her downfall or outthought them with simple populist measures. She cultivated sycophancy, orchestrated mass hysteria, remained an enigma and source of many a rumour of how her life behind those tall black iron gates of Poes Garden. But the tears that we see are genuine now. Without her rhetoric of whether people will stand behind her and do things for her, lying in state, she now knows that they will. She need not ask. She always gets. Leading a very mysterious life as an unmarried woman and always guarding herself alone, the enigma had no trusted shoulders to cry on. Lived a life of extreme loneliness, but beaming on the hoardings and water bottle labels, Amma was just omnipresent and most times omnipotent too. Breaking every conceivable glass ceiling and leading a Dravidian party that turned on its head and ate Mansoru (a ritual in Tamil Nadu where people pray to God seeking a wish and eat food from the mud floor). She is the idol every one of us should look up to on the good side. Not just women. She is a hero for all genders. The incomparable MGR founded and managed the party for 15 years and Jayalalithaa did it for almost double that period. It is time we saw her as an independent towering figure than through the prism of MGR. She has now bid adieu as privately as she lived her life and when we see her face, tears naturally well up in the eyes. A person who had no one for her, leaves seven million people crying. Farewell, Iron Lady. Rest in that elusive peace at least in death. When we come up there, we know that we can easily find you there. Someone would have put up a cut-out in heaven. And you will be smiling in that, and at last, we will wipe our tears. The author is a Chennai-based entrepreneur and the author of MGR: A Biography