New Delhi:
Often seen as the woman responsible for the break-up of the Beatles, Yoko Ono - the widow of the legendary John Lennon - says that she has been made the scapegoat. In an interview to NDTV, she says that she was victimised because she was a woman and an Asian.
Here is the transcript of an excerpt from the interview:
Barkha: Everywhere you go you are blamed for the break-up of the Beatles. How do you deal with it?
Yoko: Just recently there is a bog film by George Harrisson in which he is saying that I am going to leave...I'm going to break up the Beatles...literally saying that he is breaking up the Beatles....of course, he did not break up the Beatles...Each one of them sort of wanted to move on you know...
Barkha: Move on...
Yoko: Paul, in all fairness I must say, wanted to stick to Beatles...and wanted others to stick together. He was that kind of person. Everyone else wanted to go in a different direction, which is something you can expect from anybody.
Barkha: Bands break up...
Yoko: Wanting to do something...you can come back later...I don't know, but they didn't have anybody to put the blame...I was the easy target you know...
Barkha: You think you were made the scapegoat?
Yoko: Yes, scapegoat...being an Asian is one and being a woman...the combination you know was pretty disastrous.
Barkha: But did it stop hurting at some point of time? Did you learn to deal with it because you are able to smile when I asked you about it? Is that how you cope with it?
Yoko: The thing is that I had John with me and John was very, very supportive and protective of me...if John wasn't there, it would have been a very difficult situation...and when John passed away, it was then that the real difficulty started to happen.
Barkha: That's when the world got its fangs out?
Yoko: Yeah
Barkha: How did you deal with it?
Yoko: I thought I was very lucky...I don't know being a strong woman...I had to cope with it, I had to cope with the situation...and one strong desire I had was, I didn't want to die, I wanted to live and so I did.