You too a crowdpuller, he asked Balasaheb: Aditya Thackeray

“You too?” That was Michael Jackson’s first question to Aja (grandfather), Bal Thackeray, when he entered Matoshree and saw a picture his rally at Shivaji Park. By ‘you too?’ he meant ‘you too a crowd puller?’

Jackson came to our house during his visit to the city for his October 31, 1996 concert. He visited us twice in the three to four days he was here. The first time he came, it almost resulted in a stampede outside our house. The crowd was straining against the barricades.

They went hysterical on seeing him, some even fainted. Me, a six-year-old then, didn’t know who he was. So when he entered our house, I calmly sat on Aja’s lap. He asked me to sit on his lap.

Next time he came, after the concert, it was early morning. He stayed for an hour and half. That was quite a relaxed affair, with him being the man Michael, rather than the superstar MJ. He flipped through our family albums. Then, he posed with the cops guarding him, sitting on the floor with them.