Amitabh Bachchan attends the wedding of Mulayam Singh's son

Amitabh Bachchan attends Mulayam Singh Yadav son's wedding

Amitabh Bachchan attends Mulayam Singh Yadav son's wedding
PTI | 05:12 PM,Dec 04,2011
Etawah, Dec 4 (PTI) Prominent personalities, including Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and ADAG chairman Anil Ambani, will today attend the marriage of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Prateek Yadav at Sefai. Bachchan arrived with his wife Jaya Bachchan and Anil Ambani followed by chairman of Dalmia group Sanjay Dalmia and chairman and managing worker of Sahara India Pariwar Subrata Roy Sahara. Prateek is getting married with Aparna, daughter of a senior journalist Arvind singh Bisht. PTI CORR AVA PG

Amitabh & Abhishek Bachchan from Aishwarya Rai Baby Tweets to Dev Anand Passing

Amitabh & Abhishek Bachchan from Aishwarya Rai Baby Tweets to Dev Anand Passing


Actors Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan went from putting up tweets to fans about Aishwarya Rai's baby, to more somber messages. They have now tweeted about the passing of fellow actor Dev Anand. Anand passed away at age 88 on Saturday night due to cardiac arrest, shocking many.

While Aishwarya Rai baby tweets were among the recent messages by the two Bachchan male elders, they have now become saddened as they've learned of their fellow actor's passing away. Amitabh Bachchan, who goes by the handle @SrBachchan, tweeted the news just recently saying :

T 579 - An era has come to an end .. Dev Anand leaves a void never perhaps to be filled again .. his never give up belief, his joy of life !

His son, Abhishek Bachchan, was tweeting a photo about the Chelsea soccer team winning their game earlier, and showed off an image of what could be an outfit for Beti B. Abhishek has also just learned of the unfortunate news about Dev Anand as well. He tweeted :

Shocked to read of the passing of Dev Saab. Such a great man and actor. A symbol of positivity.

Just as Abhishek Bachchan and his father Amitabh were welcoming in the life of their newborn family member Beti B, they have now learned of the passing of a fellow actor. It goes to show just how precious life is, and that is beginning and ending on a daily basis. Deepest condolences are expressed to all family, friends, and fans of Dev Anand upon his passing.

41,000 ft in air flying passed Udaipur, closing in on Ahmedabad, on way to Mumbai

41,000 ft in air flying passed Udaipur, closing in on Ahmedabad, on way to Mumbai

Dec 4/5,   2011          Sun/Mon   12 : 38 AM

I fly the skies for most of the country. A wedding in Uttar Pradesh, a small town, distant from the wonders of the metro city, but independent and proud of its selfless devotion to its people and its circumstances.

The reverence and respect that pours out is astonishing. Their culture and their upbringing, the ethos of generations along with its age old traditions, bind them with unshakeable resolve. Their belief and their trust once connected remains so. And that is what is so admirable.

The visit is short, but full of deep regard. There is appreciation of great intensity in their attitude and then before long, we are away from them. Flying off to the capital, New Delhi. The weather in the northern regions is brisk and cool. As you cruise along, parallel to the Himalayas in the distance, the white majesty of the entire range can been seen from the windows of the aircraft. They are miles away, but since the day is clear, the range seems close by.

The crowding around at the airport and the extent of the mobile cameras is noticed to be of greater volume. It is the immediate effect of the aftermath of KBC. Always happens with celebrities. A recent successful film release and the attitude changes from the polity. Failure brings an aloofness which is disturbing. But such is the life of us all in the profession of the creative world.

The early morning news of the sudden passing away of Dev Saheb, Dev Anand has brought about a huge vacuous sense. One never associated him with death, it was always about life every time you saw him. It takes a while for us all to contend with the loss and there is a silence after the initial shock that follows. How does one really view situations such as these. No answers and no comments. The entire day is filled by requests from the media for reactions. I have tweeted about it and since I am on a plane I ask them to use that for their reports. By the evening the channels are playing all his clips from the most memorable and remarkable contributions he made to the film industry, paying particular interest to his great love for music and the fantastic repertoire of his melodies in film after film.

He spoke with the speed of knots, he moved rapidly even when he was not supposed to. His defiance of his age was legendry. His verve and his intention to keep moving were so inspirational. His positivity about life and living were examples to be emulated. And now suddenly he was gone. It just does not identify.

His attitude and singular style in his performances, would get us out of our hostel beds in the middle of the night, jump the boundary walls of the college to the nearest film theatre repeatedly, just to witness the magic of his charm and energy. And on our way back we would sing along with his songs, his deliveries of dialogue and create this wonderful world he had structured for us to be remembered forever.

I had last met him recently when he personally invited me for the premiere of his film. He was frail and weak, but still dressed in his inimitable style, young and modern and the strength of his attitude still with the same gusto.

He signified something that was endless, a continuity which we all took as a given.

On hearing the news the immediate reaction was one of disbelief. Disbelief not at his passing away, but disbelief in the fact that there could ever be an end to him.

An era of the most illustrious period of the Indian Film Industry has been robbed of its most influential icon. And even writing these words seems so insufficient.

On twitter someone wrote  a magnificent ode. Dev Anand died at age 88. No that is incorrect. He was not 88 years old. He was 4 times 22 years old !!

Meeting the young Agastya in Delhi soon after his annual day performance, which was why we detoured on our way back, was such a joy. Full of beans and full of the latest on technology and computers and apps and mobile phones. God bless him !

The undercarriage seems to have been released. An indication that we are about to land. I shall say my ‘night nights’ here for, when I get home I shall transfer from Word to WordPress and Post and …. Slumber.

Love to all and more much more …

Amitabh Bachchan

A day filled with emotions that differ .. emotions in contrast, in opposite directions

Jalsa , Mumbai          Dec  3/4,  2011            Sat/Sun 1 : 27 AM  

A day filled with emotions that differ .. emotions in contrast, in opposite directions .. a celebration of a relative as he steps into 90 years of his life and in another, one that has passed away. How does one balance the two. Its almost like being on camera with tears in one shot and after it is over to laugh it off as you head towards your vanity. The harsh reality of this situation is at times the most difficult to handle.

My daughter’s in laws Mamaji turns 90 and there is greeting and gifts and well being and prayers for a long life. Of meeting old friends of age and recollecting old times and the spirit of our care free existence amidst laughter and fun and music at an exclusive locale in town.

On the other almost simultaneously a family like Pratap Sharma, of voice and drama and writing and commentary and so many other gifted acquisitions of self, passes away and we gather to mourn his departure. But it must be said .. the family decides to ‘celebrate’ his going away rather than mourn his death. The body may have left but he was still there they believe. And such a warm and strong feeling that leaves within us ; gracefully accepted by all in a spirit of acknowledging his ‘presence’ as it were.

Life is strange and humans like us even stranger. We adjust each moment with the strength of conviction and belief. We alter ourselves almost in the different shades of a chameleon, to camouflage that which we do not desire, by readjusting our demeanor and countenance to suit situations. Expressions, faces and moods change with the rapidity of neutrinos, the latest discovery that is being calculated to move that fraction of a degree, faster than light. Where does it all emanate from is a question that has troubled me for long. I was so immersed in the extreme changes that actors go through during the course of a day on set, that I never ever paid attention to the fact that humans go through more and much more perhaps in the 24 hrs of a day in their life and existence. Our minds and our heads must be made of such stern stuff. Harboring the vagaries that confront us, adjusting to circumstances that regularly torment and torture us and still having the gall to conduct ourselves with aplomb, must and is a remarkable feat.

We are special, of that there is little doubt, but how much, is what is unknown. I fear there shall be a day in the not too distant a future, when, at the rate with which inventions prevail, we shall all be functioning in a manner that may never require the assistance of technology. Technology itself would have evolved itself to such great level that it would become a part of us rather than the other way round.

Today we log in and restore for posterity the stem cells required to determine and resolve ailments which may occur, but without the fear of it causing any harm to the system. The prolongation of life itself is against the tenets of nature. We have lived and learnt that nature must never be tampered with. So how does the inventor of today feel towards means that defy them. There must be sense of great power to know that an individual can have the capacity to control its own longevity. Or for that matter any other matter.

At 2 in the morning such thoughts defeat the desire to turn in and follow what has been prescribed by that which we fight against .. to learn and discover, apprehend, resolve and admit to the generations that are still to come that they were and we are such ordinary beginners in this most fascinating days of life that we have had privilege to live in …

Good night dear ones … there is travel tomorrow somewhat early .. and so to bed !!

Amitabh Bachchan    

Pardon my brief communications for the past few days

Jalsa , Mumbai             Dec  2/3 ,  2011                   Fri/Sat  12 : 55 AM

 Pardon my brief communications for the past few days and their ‘inconsequential content’. As the day progresses and the events unfold and the rabid talks on several social mediums appear, I am tempted to respond with equal fire ! I restrain myself because of the futility of response. Some one rightly advised ‘those that hate you shall never change, despite any amount of justification given, so why waste energy on them’ .. I think it to be sane, this mode of thinking, but am at times eager to return a taunt with not just another taunt but with a firm hand of conviction and strength.

Years of subjugation, insult, unjustified accusation, false and preposterous allegations does make one immune and anesthesia prone, but ” when the blast of war blows in our ears, then stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard favored rage ; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect, let it pry through the portage of the head like the brass canon .. ” …. and Shakespeare and Henry the V, begin to stir the emotions and the … unmentionables !!

Restraint is the proposed advice. But would it be advised if a wrong were to be documented for posterity. This generation is young and unaware of fact as presented in real time. They were not born or were too young to register. To keep their senses intact and in recognition of the truth becomes mandatory for those that have been blessed to live long enough to correct and produce the right. The written word has been the record for history through ages. The internet and the air waves of modern invention had dominated it in our times. Tomorrow there may be fresh inventions. But history and fact and reality of the times gone by will not change with the reality of fresh inventions. They will in fact draw from the past and the past shall, be documented in what the present feels about them. It becomes mandatory therefore for me to rectify the wrong in order that the future does not have the courage to carry forward incorrect information. History must be relevant when fact shall be relevant, else its incorrectness shall forever be an embarrassment to mankind.

I often have given example of my personal at times on such matters. The Times of India brought out a wonderful coffee table book on 150 years of its front pages and I was fascinated to read about the happenings of the times when I was not born. I believed what I read. To me it was fact, documented, sealed and delivered. Until … I came upon the present times and the headlines of accusations against me. It spurred me on to fight and to clear the name of my family, which I did in the courts of the highest authority. Now when the history of the TOI on its front pages shall be reprinted in years covering 350, my great great great grandchildren will be able to take pride in deciphering that the accusations were wrong and unjustified !!

Today when some, endearingly ask me not to involve myself in the somewhat uncalled for retorts, I listen to them for a while in silence, but when the silence begins to have sound, it is time to ‘stiffen the sinews’ !!

I shall give more intricate details in my next, for tonight has already gone past the hour of retirement. It closes in to the hour of 2 AM , and that is not recommended nature for even those that wish to ” summon up their blood … ” !!

I leave then with happiness and joy and wish the same for you .. you who may be enlightened, encouraged and engrossed, or some who may feel tormented … for I do know that there are many that are .. !!

Love …

Amitabh Bachchan