Why they'll be missed...

Elizabeth Taylor (February 27, 1932 — March 23, 2011)Living life to the fullElizabeth Taylor won her first Oscar playing what she called ‘slut of the world in Butterfield 8, won another in her role in ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolfe’.She had eight marriages to seven men, the most intriguing relationship being the one with Richard Burton. Taylor married Richard Burton in 1964, divorced him in 1974 and married him again in 1975, but divorced him again in 1976.[caption id="attachment_160963" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Taylor’s popularity endures even after her death. Reuters"][/caption]Taylor was so moved by the death of Rock Hudson (he died of AIDS), that she was instrumental in establishing the American Federation for Aids Research, raising $50 million for the cause.Taylor’s popularity endures even after her death. “The jewelry collection of Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor has sold for nearly $116 million, a new world record for a private collection,” says Voice of America.Continues on the next pageOsama bin Laden (March 10, 1957 — May 1, 2011)                                         Ironically, the US first funded himOsama Bin Laden’s first experience of violence was when he was 22, in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Osama joined the Afghan resistance. He moved to Afghanistan, and, ironically using aid from the United States, Osama began training a group of Islamic jihadist. In 1989, Osama was feted on his return to Saudi Arabia after the Soviet occupation ended. The United States referred to him and his soldiers as "Freedom Fighters."[caption id="attachment_160974" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="The United States referred to him and his soldiers as "Freedom Fighters." Wikimedia"][/caption]The trigger for Osama’s anti-US stance was the stationing of US forces in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. Osama believed that the presence of the  US forces defiled the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia and spoke publicly against Saudi rulers on the issue, leading to his being banished from Saudi Arabia and forcing him to relocate to Sudan in1992. In 1993, he formed Al Qaeda (the ‘base’), a global network of jihadist organisations. Al Qaeda began funding and orchestrating attacks globally, leading to the cancellation of Osama’s Saudi passport in 1994 and his being exiled from Sudan as well, in 1996. Osama left for the country which made him more than welcome, the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. On 11 September, 2001, a group of Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger aircraft in the United States, two of which were deliberately flown into the World Trade Center towers and a third into the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks led the US government into forming a coalition that overthrew the Taliban. The US presence In Afghanistan forced bin Laden to go into hiding till his death.Continues on the next pageMF Husain (17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011)India’s greatest rags to riches storyNot even a KBC winner compares with the story of MF Husain. Husain could hardly have been predicted to achieve greatness. Born in poverty, he began life eking out a living painting cinema hoardings. The money earned as a hoarding painter allowed him the luxury to travel and paint landscapes of Surat, Baroda and Ahmedabad; it was his landscapes that ensured he was noticed.By 1952, when he was 37, he held his first solo exhibition at Zürich and his work began to be shown and complimented in Europe and the US.In 1955, Husain, who was once just a hoarding painter, was awarded the Padma Shri award. In 1967 Husain received his first international recognition, winning a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his first film, Through the Eyes of a Painter.[caption id="attachment_160981" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Husain could hardly have been predicted to achieve greatness. AFP"][/caption]The accolades kept coming; he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1973 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1991. In a rare honour, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986. Husain, during this period, also created an image which would endure: he dressed impeccable but barefoot after achieving fame, resulting in him being denied admission to leading clubs.With the accolades came a handsome reward: value for his work. Husain became the highest paid Indian painter, with some canvasses selling for as much $2 million at Christie's.Controversy followed him as much as critical acclaim, recognition and money, and his painting Hindu goddesses in the nude caused him to be charged legally with ‘hurting the sentiments of people’. The legal implications of the charge, including possible arrest, saw him leave India.Husain sadly spent the last years of his life in Dubai and London. Commenting on his exile and death outside of India, painter Akbar Padamsee said that it was a “pity that a painter as important as Husain had to die outside his own country because of a crowd of miscreants.”Continues on the next page Shammi Kapoor (21 October 1930– 14 August 2011)Entertaining without taxing brainsHe once dated a belly dancer, he was dubbed the Elvis Presley of India, he founded the Internet Users Community of India and was instrumental in setting up internet organizations the Ethical Hackers Association and won three Filmfare awards.His films reflected his view of how films should be. “Those were happy movies…hero meets heroine, chases her, used to sing 7-8 songs for fasaoing (impressing) her, then last mein Pranji ki tarah ek villain bhi aa jayenge. The hero has a climax fight with Pran to save the heroine. And at the end, the lovers are united. I belong to the era when films were simple, they didn’t tax your brains,” he is quoted as having said.[caption id="attachment_161036" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="His films reflected his view of how films should be. Screen grab from ibnlive.com"][/caption]All his fans remember him as a light-hearted and stylish playboy and for his inimitable dancing style. “He danced his way into the hearts of millions and broke several stereotypes along the way. Shammi Kapoor, wooed his heroines and audiences alike by breaking into impromptu jigs while singing romantic numbers, wrote DNA.One of those songs was in Junglee, where he self-deprecatingly calls himself a ‘junglee’ or beast, punctuating the song with the word, ‘yahoo!’ Watch the video here.Later, the rumour mills ground out the mistaken notion that the searach engine Yahoo!’s name was inspired by the Shammi Kapoor song. Sure, he had no connection to the name, but he did love the Internet – the net inspired him to quit smoking. “The moment the mouse came in my hand, the cigarette flew away, permanently,” he said.Continues on the next pageJoe Frazier (January 12, 1944 – November 7, 2011)“I was 15 years old and I was on my own.”He was the 12^th child in the family, growing up in a farm that was ‘white dirt’, which is another way of saying it wasn't worth a damn. He left home as his mother feared for his safety because of his inability to get along with white people. “Son, if you can't get along with the white folks, then leave home because I don't want anything to happen to you,” she said.Five years after he left home, Joe Frazier won an Olympic gold medal. During his professional boxing career, he won 32 out of the 37 bouts he fought, 22 of them in knock-out decisions.[caption id="attachment_161039" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Five years after he left home, Joe Frazier won an Olympic gold medal. AP"][/caption]March 8, 1971 was the day Joe Frazier ‘arrived’ cheered on at Madison Square Garden, meeting Mohammad Ali in the "Fight of the Century". Members of the audience in ringside seats included Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen, Diana Ross,  Dustin Hoffman and Burt Lancaster. In a brutal contest, Frazier lost a number of early rounds but finally won a clear, 15-round, unanimous decision.Frazier appeared as himself in two episodes of The Simpsons. In the first one, ("Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"), Frazier is seen beating up Gumble in Moe's Tavern and putting him in a trash can. In the second appearance, Frazier appeared in "Homer's Paternity Coot". Frazier appeared as himself in Rocky.Not bad for a boy who left home at the age of 15. He was on his own, and he did OK!Continues on the next pageSócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, (19 February 1954 – 4 December 2011)Footballer, intellectual, doctorYou thought he was a footballer? Socrates was a columnist for newspapers and magazines, writing not about sports,  politics and economics. His death leaves a work of fiction, his first-- incomplete. Not surprisingly, the book revolves around the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.He made 60 appearances for Brazil, scoring 22 goals; 297 apeerances for Corinthians, scoring 172 goals. He captained Brazil in the 1982 World Cup and played in the 1986 edition. After retiring as a player he practised medicine, a qualification he earned while playing professional football.[caption id="attachment_161049" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="He was no ordinary sportsman; he was a thinker, a reader. Getty Images"][/caption]He was no ordinary sportsman; he was a thinker, a reader – and his idols included Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and John Lennon. While playing for Corinthians he co-founded Corinthians Democracy, a movement that built public opinion against the military government of the time. Socrates and other footballers belonging to Corinthians Democracy wore T-shirts with the word ‘Democracia’ written on them during games.Journalist, political activist, doctor of medicine, almost an author…… and what a footballer.Continues on the next pageSteve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)Oh wow!His father was a Muslim; his father and mother gave up Steve Jobs for adoption when he was ten months old. He almost married Joan Baez, was a fan of Joan Baez’ lover Bob Dylan and of the Beatles. He had a baby girl out of wedlock and denied that the child was his, claiming he was sterile (he later acknowledged her). He met his birth mother when he was more than 25 and his sister when he was 30. He turned his back on his biological father, even though he knew who he was and what he did. He was rarely in touch with his mother, though he became a close friend of his sister.[caption id="attachment_161062" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Jobs (almost always) wore a black long-sleeved turtleneck jersey Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers. Reuters"][/caption]The Beatles were the largest influence on his life and career. “My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people,” Jobs told the 60 Minutes.He didn’t like change.  Jobs (almost always) wore a black long-sleeved turtleneck jersey Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.He gave the world the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPad.And his last words were “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW."Oh wow.Continues on the next page Sathya Sai Baba (23 November 1926 – 24 April 2011)An empire worth anything between Rs.40,000 crore and Rs. 1,40,000 croreIf creating wealth of this size is a miracle, so was his birth, according to his mother, who claimed it was a miraculous conception. Born in a small village, Puttaparthi, Sai Baba’s life story is peppered with the word ‘miracle’. When he was 14, he was bitten by a scorpion and lost consciousness for many hours. When he came back to consciousness, he began singing in Sanskrit, a language he had had no exposure to. Shortly after this incident, he declared himself a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi.[caption id="attachment_161065" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Was he a Godman or an extraordinarily talented sleight-of-hand artist? Screengrab from ibnlive.com"][/caption]Was he a Godman or an extraordinarily talented sleight-of-hand artist? Many scpetics have challenged his ‘miracles’, but Sai Baba refused to acknowledge the arguments of scientists, saying they were incapable of understanding what spiritualism could achieve. To his devotees, Sai Baba was their religious leader and a man of miracles, one who could, indeed, create miracles.And with that, he gained a following which grew in size and in geographies. Sathya Sai Baba’s 80^th birthday celebration, for example, was reportedly attended by over 1 million devotees from over 180 countries.His devotees included the former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.And Sachin Tendulkar.Sai Baba created more wealth, counted in crores,  than Sachin Tendulkar has scored runs…