Many that read my prosaic prose of yesterday felt a sense of togetherness and longing

Jalsa  ,  Mumbai               Feb 1/ 2 ,  2012                   Wed/ Thu  12 : 05 AM

 I have but nothing to give … nothing to say … nothing to share. My givings are my misgivings with you, or so you believe and think. I think not. Openness of heart can invite misgivings. Openness of heart can provide subtle relief of togetherness. Openness of heart can divide, join and dissipate all that one is supposed to believe and honor. Be that. Be strong and with will, it fills with abstract form somewhat rapidly.

In for a few hours into Jalsa has kept me lazy and occupied with nothingness. Not such a bad state to be in provided one is aware of its consequences. Consequences may differ from person to person. They may have inverse connotations. They may damage or bring prosperity and happiness. Depends how you wish it to behave. I allowed mine to take me along with it. Never did dictate or put force in to practice even though at times situations do demand that. There is  natural flow in life – allow it to function on its own and it will, happily !! Bring in consequences and barriers rise, blockages abound galore. The sight of our own form does not vision right and it provokes us to abandon it. Abandon ? That would be disastrous, do you not think ??

  

Many that read my prosaic prose of yesterday felt a sense of togetherness and longing. I have to say this that it was not me or mine. It was the ‘ghazal’ that played repeatedly in my mind, its thoughts were divine and I merely put them in my own perspective and meaning. They were indeed romantic. But then the ‘ghazal’ format has often been just that. Its expressions bountiful, fulfilling and of desire. Equally it could become one of great remorse and disillusion. Depends on the state you wish to take it in. Tough decision, but taken with some ease I would like to believe.

I leave again on promotional trail – to mountains and hills, tomorrow. The wollies will be most welcome and desired. They – the wollies – here in this city await usage. They hardly ever are, so they look forward to this trip with great joy and the happiness of being worn. I suppose they too have their complexities and desires. Never must we look back at them with distaste. Their warmth is all embracing. It is material but warm all the same and …. close to the heart !!

The midnight gongs have long been struck, the hot water bottle looses its sheen each hour that is remains unused. I must retire to it, to hold between and give attention. Their sense of ego and demand for attention can be worrying at times. Upsetting them would not be wise. All it requires after all is for them to open their mouths and the ruin of the wet that belches out on the sheets shall destroy your night permanently ..

Good night then … and with love ..

Amitabh Bachchan

Apologies and more .. just got poetically taken up with some thoughts that crossed

Ahmedabad , Gujarat                           Jan  31,  2012                                         Wed  12 : 15

Oceans of the eyes … the oceans of the lips .. they take me down with them, drowned … all the happiness of the world with you and yours, may you ever remain with them … when your eye lashes meet mine, your heart touches with mine, then have we reached the  … satisfaction of togetherness .. my life my happiness all, in your name .. in your name, thus must it be and is .. may you not forget, nor I that when hearts meet do we reach destinations .. my longing turmoil, your laughter .. my sleep your dreams .. oceans of the eyes drown me now within you .. the still silence of two but one, look to nowhere … that quiet shift of my fingers into yours softly unannounced .. a tightening of palms and the wrench somewhere within inexplainable … sounds that link each breath that you do take and I .. no desire as close, no form in form … what and where is this .. is this it that is ..

Apologies and more .. just got poetically taken up with some thoughts that crossed this ever troubled mind of ours when solitude overwhelms us, as must it do to many who read with me. We hear we witness we listen and we build inside us a wave of energy that envelopes us in the rushed flash of its emotion. Long do we all, to remain with it for ever, but it disappoints us, much like that troubled lover, doubtful and without trust. Who leads us there but loses itself in the midst of our following … we search and hope and labor long to discover it. It eludes us now and shall perhaps for eternity. Such affection rarely returns with strength. It has been marauded and cut away among the forest of its own vegetation .. the stew that burns is indeed its own, and burn it shall in it as well .. as well as it can ..

Today the Ambaji temple, built some centuries away, with many myths and theological and religious sentiment. Shiv the destroyer, among the three – Brahma the creator, Vishnu the protector and Shiv the destroyer – the destroyer because the wrong needed to be destroyed for the good to survive, or for fresh thought and deed to develop, had done the ‘tandav’ dance, a dance of the destroyer, angry and sharp in content, with the body they say, of either his wife after her death, on his head. It was vigorous and strongly emotional. To stop Shiv from this almost uncontrollable form Brahma intervened by cutting the body into many parts. They fell at 51 places all over the country and wherever it fell there has it been constructed a ‘peeth’ a place of worship. The heart they say fell at this location where the temple is now, it was called the ‘Shakti Peeth’ and Amba Ma the goddess was established here and the rituals for her prayers initiated. She is symbolized as having her carrier as the Lion, and so the white marble statue that you see in the picture is of that within the main prayer hall.

I visited this Temple in 1998 during the shooting for the film ‘Sooryavansham’. But then it was just a very remote small unkept place which looked something like this -

But within the last 7-8 years it has been worked on and with the additions around it has the look as you see in the photograph above. It has the aesthetics of some of the finest temple architecture in marble, excavated from the Aravali range of mountains that surround the region. Apparently the Aravali range is considered in some historical circles to be even older than the Himalayas. They are not as vast as high and as mighty as the largest mountain range in the world, but they were there before the Himalayas. Of course this emanates from that grand theory that the entire Indian subcontinent was once millions of years ago a part of Eastern Africa, joined at the region where Egypt and the Somalia horn exist now. It broke away, this large land mass and drifted across the Arabian Sea, collided with the Asian land mass and became what we now call India. The Himalayas, was of course, a result of this massive impact that took place. The breaking away theory and the impact theory as far as the Himalayas are concerned is supported by the fact that the Aravali were never the result of any impact of land mass. They are vertical in direction, the Himalaya horizontal. Had there been an impact theory for the Aravali too, they would not have been vertical. Had the Aravali range been horizontal too, there would have been a major change in the weather system of the country. The Monsoons, the only source of rain and water for the country would then, after crossing the western coast, have met the Aravali Range, deposited the moisture there and not be able to move up to the Himalayas and provide rain for the northern regions of the country. But these are topics which could better be explained by scientists ; those that study the history of our geographical contours. I do not wish to state that all that I have heard and written is indeed born and backed by fact, it is not. But as one drives for long hours each day and enquires for the details of many of the sites that surround the countryside, one hears and picks up ad libbed conversations to form opinion.

Faith and belief have been so integral to the existence of the human. I write human, because the generalized term ‘mankind’ expressed as a reference to the human, has been objected to often by … the female gender. Why mankind, why not woman kind .. ?? They have lamented and argued .. and rightly so. It has therefore made me more cautious whenever there is need to put in words the word that now requires attention and respect .. womankind !!

So yes .. faith and belief, such strong portents for human existence. And how marvelously well the human has designed accepted and follows the faith that is given to him or her at birth. Never to question never to disbelieve, or disrespect. That is the latent strength of belief and its spread ..

Amitabh Bachchan

Each morning we drive miles and kilometers to various destinations

Balaram Palace , Gujarat                    Jan  30 ,  2012                                         Mon  10 : 45 PM     

Mounted police to control the crowds … !! After returning from Sidhpur, the only place where the ‘shraadh’ ceremony is done for women .. so sublime and gentle and full of sanctity ..

In pensive mood at the area filled with temples and where the ‘shraadh’ is performed ..

The ‘toran’ at VadNagar, the birth place of the Chief Minister Mr Narendra Modi .. stunning and just strangely standing there as a symbol of what ? I do not have any idea .. majestic .. !!

At the prayer for Mother’s soul and its peace …

Each morning we drive miles and kilometers to various destinations, all of which have some significance in the history of the region. Each morning the crowds diligently stand by the side of roads and cheer. The smile on the faces of those that wave and scream and cheer, is poignant and sad for me. Their smile is so open and warm and honest. It is pure and simple. It is all that they have. But it is the best that they do.

Those that line the roads are from different walks of life. In the city there is the youth and the jeans and jackets and hoodies. Through the villages, there is first a sense of amazement,  and then it erupts ; their faces light up, they raise their hands in recognition and cheer, but what is most is the nature of their smile – open and warm and genuine, free from all other thought. The poor of this nation are a reflection of what truly this land stands for, believes in. Despite all the poverty and the paucity of food and house and clothing, they still remain happy and full of belief. A belief that all will change someday, that better days shall follow. They just need to pray more intensely and sincerely. The poor live through hope and fresh air, nothing more … and yes prayer ! Prayer to the God’s for mercy, for forgiveness and for the resurrection of their fate.

No matter how much we may want to do for them individually, or through collective effort it shall still never be enough. Never enough to bring them to an equal level. And if not equal then to a semblance of equality for their needs and wants.

We who have advantage of all basic needs have worked hard for its accomplishment. But so have the others. They have worked no less harder, but the Almighty showed us the way to an enlightened life. For the poor, it had some and did not have some. Why ? I still do not think that science could ever have an answer for it. I certainly do not and I am certain that many like minded would be in a similar dilemma. Which is why religion for the poor and needy is perhaps their most important crutch. They pray and they show devotion to the deities and Gods of the region, bring them along with the stories that have been associated with them for centuries, propel the truth of their existence, the values they possess and how prayer and hope can fill their life with a better tomorrow !!

It has worried me through my years of existence and worries me still because we do not have a solution for this ailment. But just like the others, I believe that hope shall be replaced by fact and fructify into more positive thought word and deed – namely, all the basic necessities required to live and survive in this world, shall come with some dignity and respect, at a time not too distant in the future.

I leave today with a heaviness, not of some physicality, but one that disturbs my mind – not such a good wave to be in possession of just when the night calls on us, to retire for the day …

Good night and with love …

Amitabh Bachchan

I was there today in one of the most congested regions of the city

Ahmedabad , Gujarat                   Jan 29/30 , 2012                                     Sun/Mon 12 : 20 AM

Uttarayan the festival of kite flying in this region, when the masses get up on their roofs, sing eat dance, play music, scream at every kite that takes off and that gets ‘cut’, by the competitor in the sky.

I was there today in one of the most congested regions of the city to get the right atmosphere for the shot and it was as you can see a bit overwhelming. But flying the kite was such a nostalgic feel. Perhaps after 60 years, during my time in my city of birth, Allahabad, that I was indulging again .. and cut my fingers too with the ‘manjha’, the crushed glass swiped thin thread that propels the kite into the air. The ‘saddi’ is the soft plainer thread that is used to tie up the kite and then fly it. But when competition starts from the other roofs, the idea is a competition of how to get rid of the other persons kite, but cutting off its flying thread. And this is done by tying to the ‘saddi’ a large length of ‘manjha’, which remains in the upper portion of the kite, so that when it encounters another kite soldier in its vicinity in the same sky they battle to cut it off – cut the tread that controls and flies the kite. Its a victory of course in the air and there is much jubilation from the roof you are at and from your team, when a few competitive kites are ‘cut’. In Allahabad or in UP, where the language is different, we used to shout – ” woh kaata !!”, ‘there we’ve cut it’ …

But really the most enthralling moment was driving back from the site … the mass of people, struggling pushing fighting the security, and their happy faces and shouts of ecstasy were just so much to be thankful for. It is difficult to control ones emotion at moments like this.

That done it was time for some philanthropy. The opening of  cancer hospital in the city, started by some US returned doctors, with the latest equipment and a motto that irrespective of he means of a patient, he or she would not be sent back because they did not have the funds to undergo treatment. All would be entertained and if they did not have the monetary support, the Hospital would consider them for free. Laudable gesture !!

Later, the Chief Minister Mr Narendra Modi dropped by at the Hotel where I was staying to meet up and to personally thank me for the work that had been done in the field of Tourism for the State. He also educated us during the course of his stay on the ‘banini bhais’ or the ‘banini  buffalo’. I do sincerely hope I have got the name right – ‘banini’ or ‘banni’ ? Not quite sure. But its details were fascinating. A unique form of buffalo who’s quality of milk never suffered with extreme changes in climate. The tested milk would be the same if the buffalo was in  -23 degrees temperature or at + 52 degrees. And this species is only found in Gujarat – or so I was informed !!

There is a move to cross breed the cow found in the Gir forest region with their counterparts in Argentina ! Thats a long way away !!

But most of the afternoon after all these formalities was spent in watching the Australian Open Tennis final between Nadal and Djokovic. And what a match that was. On to a 5 setter and not a scratch of evidence throughout the game as to who the possible winner or champion would be. So intense and rugged the game was. Went on to create a record in its timings – beyond 5 hours ! No other Grand Slam Final had been played so long before …

I really feel most concerned for the girl friends of these champions that sit along with their team in the stands, with a prayer and expectation on their faces all the time. They must loose some serious pounds during each of these competitions !!

Tomorrow another early call, another fascinating location, another long drive and another new habitat for the night .. we are the roaming minstrels of the modern age !!

Love to you and shubh ratri ..

Amitabh Bachchan 

Patan Gujarat a good 3 hr drive from Ahmedabad

Patan , Gujarat                      Jan 28 ,  2012                               Sat 8 : 01 PM

Patan, Gujarat a good 3 hr drive from Ahmedabad one of the main cities of this state, and this step well. Enormous, incredible carving and even more incredible the concept. The rounded portion is the well and instead of dropping a rope down to collect the water, they built steps to get down to the bottom or the face of the water and each step is an entire floor or platform ornately built in some of the most incredible carvings that I have ever seen. The Solanki Kings built it around the AD 1022 and it remained buried in earth for centuries until some Western travelers saw a small protrusion of one of the arches and started digging to unveil this work of absolute genius. Each step is large enough to house and entire metro city high rise floor, sheltered from above by roof and space enough for travelers to rest and spend several days by the water. Because the way down was steep and difficult to maneuver with the bucket of water that was procured, resting on the heads of the ladies that collected it, the steps to the step platform was made diagonally and in several directions to ease the climb. They say the best way to climb mountains without getting too tired is to walk up diagonally. We used to try that in Sherwood, Nainital to much effect. Walk a few steps diagonally for some distance and then change direction to the reverse diagonal and climb again, almost zig-zag in design !

But this Rani ni Vav, or translated, the Queens Well, Vav in Gujarati means well, is an unbelievable sight. The carvings are so intricate that one does not ever want to leave the place. Not a single space is left undone and each space having a distinct design and story !!

Patan too is the place where they make the famous Patola sari. It is a craft that takes almost 3-4 years to create one sari and it is all done by hand. Many foreigners have tried to take the craft to their land and to industrialize it through machines, but it has never worked. There are just a handful of families left that make these exquisite saris and they pride themselves in being so.

This has been a great revelation and every effort to maintain this great inheritance must be exercised. The civilized world shall always hold us in judgement and hold us responsible if we did not.

But it really teaches us that centuries from now, when humanity shall come across what we leave behind in this era and age, would it live up to the standards that we see now in these ancient discoveries ..?

A thought maybe to go to sleep with and to think ..

Amitabh Bachchan