My cook Kundan was heart-broken. 'Michael Jackson is gone,' he told me in anguish. Kundan hails from a remote village in India. He has never heard a Jackson song nor seen him perform. Yet he was shattered. I wondered why?

Then it dawned on me that Michael had over the last three decades become a part of our lives, through his music, songs, dance, episodes. We had assumed he is always there - like the clouds, stars, rivers, flowers. And then suddenly, he is gone. And suddenly now, we feel older, more vulnerable.

The last service for Michael Jackson was watched by about a billion people across the globe. People irrespective of nationality, gender, age, caste, creed, colour of skin or eye, stopped eating, drinking, working, to bid adieu to a talented singer.

Michael seems to have touched everybody's life and psyche, irrespective of whether they understood pop music. He was an entrepreneur and ambassador of music, with his prodigious talent.

He ignited the imagination of music and dance lovers across the world. A vibrant, creative personality, his influence spanned continents, and will now span time. A child prodigy, he had a profound impact on music in the last 35 years.

His passion for music will be his enduring legacy. All enormous achievements in music, art, science are born of dedicated passion, which Michael possessed in munificent qualities.

Michael had detractors too. Whenever there is celebrated talent and achievement, there is powerful criticism and jealousy. Nobody in the world could dance with Michael's kinetic electric energy. Success has venomous accompaniments.

Whether we were inspired by his music or not, the various controversies concerning him made their way into our lives. His prank with his son over a balcony, relations with children, desire to look white, divorces, became fodder for a public mill. This is the price of success, fame.