Mixture + Badam burfi + a Rajkumar movie ... and you forget that you stay 8000 miles away from home. Perhaps, the perfect antidote for homesickness too. It was a Sunday evening ... with beautiful weather outside that significantly explains the slow climate change from harsh American winter to a pleasant spring. I'm seeing movies alphabetically ... the ones in my laptop ... it started off with 'A Wednesday' yesterday ... and today i was sure it would be 'Batman Begins' ... but secretly ... 'Bangaaradha Manushya' slid in ... and made my day! I knew i couldn't complete watching the whole movie at once ... with loads to study ... but i also knew i couldn't be able to stop myself too ... after all, its the legend in action.

Rajkumar is a household figure in every Kannada family ... most people of our previous generation ... especially the women folk regard him to be a part of their family. They worshipped him more than their husbands ... mom used to cry when Rajkumar would return home from the fields, after ploughing land, with blisters in his hands. Coincidentally, if dad burns his hands when trying to cook (he does some exotic dishes sometimes) ... forget mom crying, dad would actually be reprimanded for being careless and also finding trouble!

Few might be surprised ... for Rajkumar was actually 'Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju'. He became Rajkumar only after his debut movie 'Bedara Kannappa' ... he was given this name by the movie's director H L N Simha. He acted in a total of 206 movies in his lifetime ... excluding guest appearances. Two of his most famous performances were his own productions - Kaviratna Kalidasa and Shankar-Guru. What was notable is ... most of his movies carried social messages ... which explains the fact that he never smoked a cigarette or consumed alcohol in any of his movies. Ask SRK to even try not smoking for a single movie!

A Rajkumar movie, especially of the 1960-70s genre was accompanied by amazing songs ... by none other than another legend - P B Srinivas (PBS). His voice was so apt for Rajkumar that ... it was commonly said ... even Rajkumar's own voice could not be that apt for himself. Few know that, in the movie Babruvahana, while Rajkumar sang for Babruvahana, PBS sang for Arjuna. Even more surprising was the movie 'Muddina Mava' wherein Rajkumar lent a voice to S P Balasubramaniyam who had acted in that movie.

• He won 10 filmfare awards for the best actor category
• He won 9 state awards for the best actor category. State awards for films were started off in 1967 by which half of Rajkumar's career was over
• He won a national award for the best male playback singer
• He has received both the PadmaBhushan and Dadasaheb Phalke for his contributions to the Kannada film industry
• He was awarded Karnataka Ratna in 1993
• He received an honorary doctorate from Mysore University
  
• He won the prestigious Kentucky Colonel award and the NTR national award

There was no role that Rajkumar couldn't do ... comedy, action, romantic, double/triple roles, mythological characters to a person fighting for modern day social causes. What makes him different (a favorite word in filmland) was his persona ... he was never 'big' ... ask your grandmom about him and she will talk about him as though he was her own son ... and Rajkumar was one ... a son to every mother ... a brother to every sister (except Parvathamma of course ... and maybe Leelavathi too ... but we will not talk about that) ... he showed what a happy family is like ... he taught people how to live ... he taught people how to love ... his movies were never a figment of imagination. Every child that sees a superhero ... like SRK for example ... wants to look like him ... have his hairstyle ... be as charming and perfect as he can ever be ... dance like him ... fight like him ... and in the worst scenario, be able to smoke like him too. But anyone who sees a Rajkumar movie certainly wants to be like him ... but also look after a family like him ... love people like him ... work hard like him ... be healthy and fit like him ... help people like him ... be noble like him ... truthful like him ... and be a great brother/son/father like him. This is what you call a true legend ... and a legend lives on forever!