The Hogwash school of Bizarre-dry and Bitchcraft

In the last decade nothing has gotten people more gung ho about books than the Harry Potter collection. It has no doubt re-introduced the habit of reading in a generation that makes use of summer vacations playing XBoxes rather than read books such as Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys. These books were not just a healthy past-time for us they were our lifeline. Anyways this post is neither about books, no is it a critical review of the Harry Potter series.

This post is about the creator of this phenomenon - JK Rowling. No doubt she has managed to capture the attention of the generation with the shortest time span and indulged them into reading thick tomes. One must simply appreciate her skill at reviving the idea of wizards, magic and demons and weaving it nicely into today's context. She has achieved massive success and also triggered a series of Hollywood blockbusters which simply added to all the hysteric atmosphere around this subject. It's no doubt that such success - full of glamor and limelight would get to anyone's head, considering which her recent despicable actions can be forgiven.

Instance one, Durga Puja is a mega festival celebrated in East of India ( Bengal and the likes ). The celebrations usually involve erecting huge pandals or shamianas for a period of ten days. Over the years ( comparing with my childhood memories ) these pandals have begun to enjoy enormous proportions not just in size but they have become elaborate, expensive and beautiful pieces of modern day dismantable architecture. From huge palaces to world wonders like the Taj the Durga Puja organizers spare little to create a sensation. Catching onto contemporary emotions and interests one of the committtees decided to build and did build a replica of the Hogwart's school! (Now come the two Wows!) Wow!! Now that's something u didnt imagine. Anybody in their right senses would simply be awed by the construction.( I have seen pictures clicked by a friend of mine )
But no!! Some people are just the old whiny whiny. And who is this?? None other than our JK Rowling. It seems that the committee violated her intellectual property in doing so and so she happily sued them for a sum of 20 Lakhs. Wow!! Now that's something u didnt imagine. I have several points to lambast her on this.

Why would any creator ( I'll be generic ) sue someone for appreciating and propagating their own creation. It's certainly not an act of disrespect. The pandal was for religious reasons and no community shows any form of disrespect atleast to their own religions. Neither has the use been commercial. The committee wasnt earning any money out of it. It was only to draw attention. More importantly, they were at the end of the day only encouraging and propagating her own creative ideas. Would Walt Disney come and sue us all because we ever as kids wore Mickey Mouse costumes? Would Dinsey come and catch hold of the thousands of people who wear costumes of their favorite characters to cheer littel ones at amusement parks and malls? Definitely NO!!
No creative professional in the world does that. It's only those who are full of folly and have had success get to them too fast do that. It's become the age of mindless commercialisation. How can an author do something like that and even claim to uphold values of morality, goodness and ethics she so much propounds in her books. She is nothing but a con artist who has repackaged an old idea in a new bottle. Wizard's arent her creation, neither are flying brooms, witches or demons. So do we sue her for "borrowing" ideas from somewhere else? Do we call upon the medival writers and dig up their graves or trace their ancestors to sue her for royalty purposes. No we dont!! cause we arent like her and importantly, it's not right. People always need objects for inspiration. It comes from things around us itself. If we start placing restrictions on what we can use for our imagination and thoughts, how do we progress?? It's right that we should have a system for protecting intellectual capital but not when its not being misused. Its very trivial to filter out the cases. Having said all that I feel at the end of the day its nothing but another publicity stunt by a lost soul who no finds no more ways to retain her success.

Well for instance 2, she called one of the most liked characters in her books a Gay! Well you yourself can figure out the mental state of someone like that. What more so I say. I pity such people. God give them wisdom. Or better maybe she can invent a potion for improving herself!!
It's gonna be tough what ever it may be. Till that happens you enjoy ur books and keep imaging and inspiring. Dream On!