The latter half of the evening has been spent in rehearsing for the book launch

DAY 1582

Jalsa , Mumbai             Aug 17/18,  2012               Fri/Sat  1 : 50 AM

The joys and pleasures of life are intermingled with moments which are filled with remorse and displeasure. You may be loved by the entire universe but there shall always be some that shall doubt that existence. It is that phenomena of which we have talked often, the ‘nazar’ the ‘kala tika’, to ward off the evil ..
I often wonder then, whether it is advisable to exhibit that happiness, for fear of the displeasure it often brings and I feel I have reached that conclusive argument that living in fear is a bigger obstacle, detrimental to our being and to the being of the others that come along with you, than existing in a life that propels one to the pleasures and joys of our lives …
It is often easy to write about it, for in writing there is a sense of being aloof to the meaning of the expressions that you dwell in ; but that would not be a bearing that is fare. And fare play is a greater recommendation than any other. So be in mind body and spirit of truth and fare ness, for nothing touches one more than what this means to us all. There is growing confidence in all that you experience and work with, a freedom that uplifts all else. An uplifted freedom harbors a will to excel at all times. To wipe out all the other isms completely out of our system. This is an ideal situation, a situation which each one of us endeavors the utmost to be in. It survives in some. In others it perishes. When it perishes, it opens its doors to further evil thinking and wrong, and that is what we call the destruction of our self and our body. We are then our own destroyer’s, we build walls and barriers when there really is no need to do so. Walls ? Barriers ? Against what ? No one individual has the power or the capacity to ever penetrate these boundaries that we build with our own sense of responsibility. It is we that shall decide, whether we should be receptive to joy or not - not the other. So when it is joy and happiness that is the desired module, why would we ever want to not possess it, rather than the other.
It takes time and perhaps a few experiences to be able to accept the circumstances and realize, that the person that is responsible, is we ourselves. So why make our own task so difficult. No, never ever entertain that thought which would make us defend our own faults. We know best, and we shall best repair it, or not. It is a challenge whether to live and boil in our own stew, or conduct the flames that inflame us in such manner that only gives us peace and well being !!
The rehearsals for KBC get along well. I say this because I get to be the recipient of many little warm and gentle gifts from those that come even if it is a mock game. Incredible. Like this morning I became the owner of a three wheeler bike, called Trikke, I think the name is right, presented so generously by one of the contestants out of love and wellness. A battery operated vehicle with limited speed for those that find walking troublesome. Why he thought of me is not known. Perhaps he thought I was in a state where my mobility was limited. I am grateful to him and his company that manufactures it. I rode it a bit around the place of rehearsal. It was grand. But I fear it shall be used more often by Agastya, who having just landed in Mumbai, seemed to be eyeing it with expected permission to mount it.

The latter half of the evening has been spent in rehearsing for the book launch of Abu-Sandeep’s 25 years of art and design titled ‘India Fantastique’. An incredible collection of the duo designers work of intricate and most elegant clothing that has made us all look most regal and elegant ! The evening tomorrow shall be decorated with stunning models that have through the years been with them and their designing, and rehearsing with all this tall and most appealing beauty about you has left me a little breathless, I must say. Tomorrow when they shall all be in their finest, it is going to be an even more daunting task. But for those descriptions one shall have to wait till the next day … that is provided I survive the presence of so much creativity about me !
Till the morrow then … good night … and oh yes, I feature in the book too, in a most … naaah ! shall leave that for you to fill in when you see it .. there will be a release in London of it and perhaps one in New York … perhaps …
My love,
Amitabh Bachchan

Fans celebrate Amitabh Bachchan's 'rebirth' day

Fans celebrate Amitabh Bachchan's 'rebirth' day



Kolkata, Aug 2 (PTI) Fans of Amitabh Bachchan today celebrated the 30th anniversary of the megastar's 'rebirth', the day he had come out of coma after a near-fatal accident while shooting for the film "Coolie".
Hundreds of members of the All Bengal Amitabh Bachchan Fans' Association commemorated the day by organising a cultural and musical soiree at Triangular Park in the southern part of the city.


Carrying film posters and playing songs from various films of Big B, the fans decorated the venue with Bachchan memorabilia and also watched his films.


Besides a blood donation camp, a quiz contest and dialogue competition was held to mark the occasion.


While shooting for a fight sequence in Manmohan Desai's "Coolie" in Bangalore in July 1982, Bachchan was critically injured and had to be admitted to Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital.


August 2, when he had shown signs of recovering from coma, is regarded as his second birthday by


not only his fans and well-wishers but by the actor himself.

Kya Cool Hai Hum

Kya Cool Hai Hum

Materialism at times stuns you into silence and contemplation

DAY 1567

London , UK                   Aug 2,  2012               Thu 11 : 00 PM GmT

Manoj Prasad : A very happy birthday to you, and thank you for working so hard on the promotions of BhTB !! Enjoy !!

Materialism at times stuns you into silence and contemplation. The need and desire to possess that which we never could in early ages, presses a nature button inside, and though you cringe at times on excess, something inside you keeps countering your process of thought – ‘I didn’t have it then, I was not with means, I worked hard, I developed means … now if I do possess, it is justifiable !’.

At times, when others think of irrational bent of mind on matters such as these, you are tempted to allow your thoughts to build answers that may seem absurd and out of context, but honesty brings truth to the fore, and your claim is stamped with what many may consider, honorable !

I am not Mark Antony’s ‘honorable’ Brutus, but I am me and I do give space and time for reflection, one that draws from within. I may not share it with all – most reflections generally get the privacy of a mirror, in the privacy of your private region – but ever so often, these days in particular, one does get the desire and urge to let it all out. They say age has a lot to do with it. I would not challenge that.

The early years soon after birth, are spent in wonder and amazement of who and what we are, oblivious of so many ‘other wonders’ that await us as we grow. A few years down the line, gets us to ask why they have and we don’t. Some more years pass by and the true realization dawns upon us – we are all not equal. Certain truths bewilder us, disturb and disappoint us. And for long we live in such condition, fated as it were to our birth and existence. Then suddenly a strange phenomena takes over, or begins to show signs of an emergence that defies the past, accepts the present, but instead of languishing in its theory, builds resistance to it and puts it among the brightest of colors for the future.

Blessed are they that converge to these climates, for they are quite inadvertently going to become victims of grave storms and turmoil. Of vicious turbulent waters that we shall sail on, and dark threatening skies that wander above us.

There are many that succumb in these circumstances, give it limited fight and resign themselves to fate. There are others that never venture within even a wide radius of it. And there are some that face the waters and storms straight on the face and chest, get washed away time after time, yet keep getting up with unlimited spirit and resolve, to beat that which has threatened to destroy them and their effort.

These are the ones that the world applauds and admires. But these too are the ones that come under greater scrutiny and abuse. Greater scrutiny and abuse because, there are a very limited number of them around. Majority prevails in most circumstances that the world and the human race finds itself in. And majority it is that prevails here too. You cannot expect to be in an exclusive class by yourself and not be considered for retaliation, envy and resentment. Indeed if you are not blessed with these ‘wonderful attributes’, then you might consider erasing your name from that much admired list !! Tough to consider, tougher to relent.

A capitalistic environment would create openings and build atmosphere for those that wish to take on the fight for material gain. A socialistic pattern would resist it, preaching and prevailing the benefits of what they believe to be a better way of life. Because human nature is so violently idle and mysterious, this fight shall never end. Each shall prove to the other that their ways of thought are and were correct. They will show-case their following in more than just a simple theoretical argument. There shall be attempts to prove it in all possible avenues – militarily, politically, socially, in entertainment, in manufacture and development, in infrastructure and building, in entertainment and sport, indeed in all aspects of our evolvement.

If you can build the ‘bomb’ we can too. If you can send a human into space we shall too. If your political system propagates democratic principles and succeeds, our monarchial descendent dictatorial single leadership, communistical rule does better. You build sophisticated computers and cars and electronics. We shall build the same at a quarter price, copyright be damned. If your democratic system gets you the greater Olympic medals tally, our athletes shall beat yours and we shall rule the standings. It used to be USA vs USSR. Now its CHINA vs USA, after the break up of the Soviet Union. The medals tally at the end of each day at the recent Olympics speak for themselves. Frequent accusations and dishonest competition incidents, shall flourish in London 2012, between competing teams. Episodes of unfair games being played for higher standings, drug abused athletes being brought down from their pedestals, unpleasant umpiring … the lot. A 16 year old Chinese swimmer, shoots off like a missile in the competition pool and questions and dissenting debates of her achievement do not stop. There is a deathly silence, when she touches the edge for the Gold medallion. There is little doubt that it is disbelief of performance and her talent, there is a lot more belief in finding justifiable questions to ‘what drug is she on’ . Both parties vie for attention and supremacy !!

What nations of great historical standing, stature and presence do … is, what the human does, wrong ??

‘I am stunned into silence and contemplation’ …

Good night …

Amitabh Bachchan    

A very happy birthday to you for the 2nd of August live happy and with love

DAY 1566

London , UK                    Aug 1/2 ,  2012               Wed/Thu  2 : 10 AM  GmT

Vijji … a very happy birthday to you for the 2nd of August .. live happy and with love

A short sojourn, amazing discoveries, and back to London on way to Mumbai and home.

The spread of films from India, and their popularity amazes me. What also amazes me is the reactions of those that give identification to them, irrespective of where they come from. There is a gasp of realization, a flourish of un utterable words that one has difficulty in understanding, but the expressions say it all. They could be the traveller on the street, a guest at the lobby of a Hotel, your driver at new destination, the chef in your room, or even the immigration and customs officer at airport, the feel is the same.

Its like what was noticed this evening at Heathrow. Elderly lady walks up excitedly into the area where immigration does its, whatever it does with our passports, much to the concern and consternation of the officer and the security, holds the hand as one that has found a loved one after losing them, and then … after reprimand rushes back to where she came from - a wheel chair !

I wish I could provide such cure to all wheel chairers !!

I was not aware until someone reminded me on sms on mobile, that yesterday or was it day before, it was Meena ji’s birthday - Meena Kumari that is, the iconic leading lady of our Industry. It was her 80th ! August 1st it was that she was born in 1932 and passed away after a life of extremes in 1972. An artist of immense caliber, her finest that I admired was Guru Dutt’s ‘Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam’ . The pain of tragedy was never better expressed than through the expressions and the voice of Meena ji. That one song ‘na jao saiyan ..’ where she, under the influence of alcohol, persuades her husband, played by another great, Rehman, to not go away from her, is as historic as Meena ji’s own life story. Like Dilip Saheb - Dilip Kumar, and his standing as the tragedy King, Meena ji, who worked with him in several historic films, was christened as a tragedienne, because of the many tragic roles she played to perfection. Her performances were of course of great standing, but for me and I am certain with millions of others who admired her, it was her voice that was her most attractive asset. It was unique the way she spoke and delivered her dialogues. They had a strange melancholic tone to it, burdened it seemed, with the gravest of tragic circumstances. I had often wondered how she was able to do that in film after film, until, upon meeting her, I discovered that that was her normal speech pattern. Many an actress that came after her tried in vain to adopt her style, but none succeeded. On one of her hands she had a damaged finger - the unfortunate result of an accident early on. But no one ever saw it on screen. She would very cautiously wrap the ‘pallu’ of her sari around it to make it look natural. Notice carefully some of her films and you will observe how beautifully she camouflaged this defect.

She was very fond of and close as a friend to Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, my first director, and every film that he made, its first screening would be held for Meena ji, at a rather dilapidated mini theater behind the once upon a time major recording studio, the Tardeo Recording Center. I met her for the first time when she came to see Saat Hindustani, and shall never forget the kind words of encouragement she gave me. Coming from her esteemed position and standing, it was like the voice of God for a newcomer. I next met her at the premier of ‘Reshma aur Shera’ , a classic that started off by being directed by that man with a different style and sense, a man who I think came much ahead of his time, Sukhdev. Differences surfaced in the making of that film, Sukhdev left agrieved and Sunil Dutt Saheb, who was producing that film under his banner Ajanta Arts, took over the added responsibility of directing it eventually. It was just my second film. The first had been released without much attention, no one knew me and as I stood wonder eyed at the premier of ‘RaS’ in a corner of the cinema hall, without a place to sit, Meena Kumari walked in and occupied her seat quite close to where I was standing. As the hall darkened for the start she looked about, found me standing, recognized me from the trial of Abbas Saheb’s film and beckoned me - ‘Amitabh .. tum yahan mere paas aake baitho’ - Amitabh … you come and sit next to me -

One cannot imagine the effect such an offer can have on a fresher. I sat there next to her throughout, and perhaps just about took the required number of breathes one needs to survive, nothing more. Never looked anywhere but ahead at the film, did not register a single frame, and did not move even my little finger during the entire three hours of its duration. I play a dumb mute in the film, provoked by members of my family in rivalry with another, to kill the newly married husband of Waheeda Rehman, from rival village who had become the love interest of Sunil Dutt, my elder brother in the film. At one stage I am sent to the rival village to express my guilt in front of Waheeda Rehman, and through dumb uttering plead to be killed as a repentance. As I broke down in the scene, a moment that I had nightmares about before it got canned, I heard Meena ji cringe in desperation for my plight and audible to most around her spoke out loudly - ‘ bas bas … bas karo …aur dekha nahin jaata ‘  - ‘stop ! stop … stop it now .. I cannot see anymore of this’ - a cry almost, not just of the discomfort she was going through, but in a sense a huge endorsement in appreciation of the scene.

Through the days and years, albeit short lived, after, she always gave me her blessings and kept lovingly asking me about the films I was doing and how I was progressing.

When she passed away I went with Anu, Anwar Ali, Mehmood Bhaijaan’s brother and my close friend to her house ; an apartment on Carter Road. Could not see her, and came away. Her elder sister Madhu, was Mehmood’s first wife, until they separated and he married again.

Spoken much, written more, saying good night !!

Amitabh Bachchan