Trolling Taimur Ali Khan: A reprehensible act of child abuse

Earlier on, when Taimur Ali Khan at age 0, became the youngest super-celebrity in the universe beating Tom Cruise ’s daughter Suri by a wide margin, I remember a conversation with his very concerned grandmother, the sensible Sharmila Tagore who wondered what the crazy fan-frenzy for a newly-born child was leading up to. Sharmila adroitly drew attention to the fact that Saif ’s elder children Sara and Ibrahim were also star-children, but they had a normal healthy upbringing. But Taimur….what would he think when he begins to make some sense of why the cameras keep clicking him whenever they see him?

The answer is out now. Of late, Taimur has been heard snapping at the paparazzi. In one video where he is with his brother Jehangir he is heard shouting at the paps, “Bandh karo bandh karo”. Clearly, this is the big brother trying to protect his little sibling from what he has gone through. But the netizens see it otherwise. They have been trolling Taimur calling him a budtameez and berating his parents for not teaching their child good manners. Well, excuse me! This is not only unfair, but it also smacks of the kind of disdainful arrogance this star-struck nation exercises on celebrities. The very people we adore and hero-worship are the ones we bring crashing down from the pedestal. As Taimur grows older he now understands why the shutterbugs go berserk when they see him, though I am sure he can’t fully process the whole phenomenon because no one can actually explain why Saif and Kareena Kapoor’s first-born gets so much more attention than Aishwarya and Abhishek ’s daughter or Aamir and Kiran Rao’s son. What makes Taimur so special? And why is he being criticized for showing his annoyance at what is very clearly an invasion of his private space? The boy wants to have a normal life. He wants to play with his friends, eat his ice cream, sulk in a corner when he wants to. He cannot do any of these things without the cameras clicking away every move that he makes. It is a horrific situation to be in for a 5-year old. It is doubtful that Taimur can grow up as a normal child, not in this country anyway. I believe Saif and Kareena plan to send Taimur off to a boarding school in Britain, just like Sara and Ibrahim, and Saif before them. Imagine having to flee from your countrymen’s overpowering love at an age when all you want is to be close to those whom you love. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.