You may say Im a Dreamer - Remembering John Lennon

I was in the 8th grade and still living in India when I heard that John Lennon had been shot. To be honest I didn’t know much about him at that time. I knew some of his music, mainly from the early years of the Beatles but little else. I also knew that the Beatles had been fascinated by Indian culture had given Hinduism, the Maharishi and Ravi Shankar a whirl but that was pretty much it.

That year my older brother had also acquired Lennon’s last album – A Double Fantasy. As I started to listen to it I was simply blown away by the beauty and depth of the music that I was hearing.

And so began my posthumous love affair with John Lennon.

At the peak of my Lennon phase I had probably collected over 20 books on him, and read them from cover to cover. I knew arcane details about the Beatles that probably no one knew (or cared about) and had paid a classmate $40 bucks ( a tidy sum of money in 1983) to paint me a portrait of the Beatles which I hung over my bed for years.

To say I worshipped Lennon would be an understatement. To me he was the essence of bad boy cool. The way he spoke, his commitment to Pacifism and most importantly the glory of his lyrics and music; so raw and so meaningful as opposed to the syrupy muzak like tunes that McCartney penned.

His message is even more poignant today as we confront religious inspired terrorism. Here are the lyrics to Imagine – Lennon at his absolute finest.

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the peopleliving for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.