For the better part of a decade, Lindsay Pereira impersonated Michael Jackson at venues across the country. He looks back at those years, and considers a world without the King of Pop
There are some things Wikipedia may never know. Like, for instance, how the refrain ‘Billie Jean is not my lover’ was always sung 27 times by back-up singers before Michael Jackson struck his iconic pose with a black fedora on stage. There are other things most people will never know. Like what doing the moonwalk right feels like, bathed in the glow of a spotlight, half-obscured by the smoke of fog machines, to the sound of wild applause. These are things only a Michael Jackson impersonator knows. 

I know because, between 1990 and 1996, I did what not many teenagers looking for a bigger allowance chose to do. I wore make-up, pulled on a white glove and danced across Maharashtra and Gujarat. My parents were, understandably, not sure what to make of that decision, but what I earned during those years helped pay for my textbooks. The income from dancing alone helped me get my Masters’ degree. I could have opted for something simpler but, given a chance, I’d do it all over again.

For seven years, at schools, fairgrounds, Ganeshotsav mandals, Bollywood-themed events, college festivals, the odd birthday — even a wedding! — I wore that sequinned glove and danced to the hits of the King of Pop. By the time I cut my waist-length hair and opted for a safer (if mundane) career, it seemed as if Jackson’s streak of mega-stardom had run its course. Over the next decade, that part of my life faded to the hazy place where memories go, and stayed there until a week ago. 

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