| Louis Vuitton Presents: Mikhail Gorbachev |
[13 Nov 2007|12:37pm] |
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Life in a Metro - Alvida |
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If all the newspaper images that affected my childhood could be condensed to the most memorable few, it'd be just a handful. Among them will be – Kapil Dev's victorious grin holding the Prudential Cup, Rakesh Sharma floating inside the Russian space craft and the duo who were competing to occupy the driver's seat of the world at the time – Gorbachev and Reagan - sitting, standing, signing, discussing at numerous conferences and summits, with or without Raisa and Nancy at their sides.
While Kapil's and Rakesh Sharma's achievements were the stuff dreams were made off, Reagan with his Star Wars, laser defense systems and MAD gave me nightmares. India's socialistic leanings and the Russian patronization we've been receiving ever since Nehru got infatuated with the largest European country that worshiped the hammer and the sickle only fueled my worries. I was certain Reagan would do target practice of his missiles on India before taking on the real enemy. So much for being the sidekick of the Reds. The eight year old me admired my parents' knack to be preoccupied with more prosaic stuff as housing loans and price rises and remain utterly unperturbed by the evil guy in the white house hatching plans to annihilate the whole universe. Atleast there was someone in the family who was doing the worry duty and they didn't even thank me.
Gorbachev and his birthmark were my heroes at the time. Glasnost and Perestroika were useful concepts I had been advocating to my parents who were absolute dictators like the Commies Gorby was trying to preach sense to. Only that in Russian these concepts sounded weighty and people sat down and took note of them. To this day I believe that Gorby and Scorpions have a 50-50 share in bringing the Wind of change, which brings me to the purpose of today’s history rant.
After what seems like a lifetime I saw Gorby again this morning, in the most unlikeliest of all places – in a Louis Vuitton ad! (Yes I am late, news arrives late when you have to rely on sled dogs.)
It is not the first time Gorbachev did "I am in your capitalism eating your moneys" thing. He had done a Pizza Hut ad in the late nineties. Can’t blame the man, from his looks in this newest ad he could seriously use some moneys. The former President of USSR is pictured(taken by Annie Leibovitz) as traveling in a limo, the backdrop is what is left of the Berlin wall and beside him on the seat is a Louis Vuitton bag. There is a newspaper of some sort in Russian on top of the bag, which has given rise to plenty of conspiracy theories, I’ll leave you to make up your own. Meanwhile I express sincere thanks to Louis Vuitton for bringing one of the most important historical figures of our time to a magazine page near me. Long time, no see comrade :)
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