Posted on: February 3, 2012 - 11:59 pm

Comments: 161

Jalsa , Mumbai                                                    Feb  3 ,  2012                                                Fri  11: 42 PM

 

 

 

There is a certain romance in seeing the sun rise from behind the hills or mountains. Its the most inspiring picture that has always remained with you through the entire ages right from the time you held the first crayon color pencils in your hand and were asked to scribble and draw whatever came to mind. As the young kindergarden kid, the picture you painted was always of the hills, a semi round circle representing the sun coming out from behind it and the rays it emitted drawn in straight lines out from the circular sun, a tree with thick branches, and a little hut with the odd bird flying somewhere in the distant horizon …

Images like this remain with you until you actually experience it live. This morning at 6 AM that is exactly what one saw. Miles of undulating valleys and hills and from behind one of them the ‘soorya devta’ appearing in all its bright glory, to lighten the world and to give us the energy of the day.

Symbolized mythologically as the giver of knowledge, the God Hanuman once went to the Sun to gain some of it for himself. The Sun answered him by saying it will be difficult to impart knowledge to him since was continuously moving. And Hanuman in all his humility responded, that it was and will be no problem fo him, since he would walk backwards in front of the moving sun, and gain the teachings that the Sun God would impart as he moved along. Symbolical ? Yes the symbolic essence of the story is the need to get up from your night rest and sleep, before the sun rises, in order to be knowledged and worthy .. !!

A bit of a misnomer for todays’s generation I guess, that actually prides itself in following quite the opposite. They follow behind the Sun and I am not sure whether they do have the capacity to gain the knowledge that is required of them …

Simple stories narrated in simple examples went a long way to describe without any issues what society had prescribed for them. Not all are happy with this prescription, for they feel they are not diseased enough to be put on to any kind of medication. Fair enough. But we shall remember it always because it came from our elders.

There is time now to catch up on lost sleep. The schedule in Gujarat involved early morning wake up calls, miles and kilometers of road driving before reaching destinations, working on the shootings, driving back and settling in to a new bed and a new environ each day. It can become disorienting at times. The rapid change in our night halts, at various Circuit Houses and Hotels, the fresh beds would throw us. You get up in the middle of the night and walk to the wrong side of the room thinking it to be the one where you were the previous night. But it is not. Embarrassing to say the least, but there …

The miles and miles of driving on roads straining the back, the sliced fingers after the kite flying, the physical walks on difficult terrain, has all been of the past now. Though I must say it was most enjoyable. But really, Saputara, the hill station needs to be seen during the monsoons when all is green and lush and freshly washed and laundered. I shall soon after this Monsoon !!

 

In the cricket the Indian Team for the T20 in Australia has finally come to terms with its strength and possibility, and WON the second game today by a huge margin. The write ups in the media that till now had castigated the boys in blue, and left them with no hope at all, barring a few, shall tomorrow morning be full of praise and congratulation. There cannot be any other after having performed so well.

Tomorrow shall be the eve of Abhishek’s English calendar birthday and it shall be wonderful to see him grow another year, with additions and all ..

 

My love to all ..

Amitabh Bachchan

Posted on: February 2, 2012 - 11:46 pm

Comments: 389


Saputara , Gujarat                                              Feb  2 ,  2012                                             Thu  11 : 15 PM

 

 

Frustrated with inferior network connection, struggling with the pictures I so diligently took to paste on to your visions, I resort now to writing, than wait for the speed to pick up.

So, early morning on to a private jet, and within 25 minutes in Nasik – religious importance, military importance, vegetational importance and the location for most of the shoot for ‘Khaki’ – and drive a couple of hours to Saputara on some elevation, to a land that looks dry now but shall become lush green during and soon after the monsoon. Tribal culture prevails here as can be seen by the masks in various hues and the exquisite wall paintings in white on the gateways and blank house walls of villages -

What creativity can do to one’s mind is astonishing. How judiciously they use the triangle in every form without losing the reality of the image and how simply they interpret their everyday life !! And … how absolutely one can fall in love with the beauty that abounds in the shape and size of the two most here -

Ah !! Just had to get a picture with them. The thorn between two roses. And no there is no need to refer to the much made popular adage to this, by none other than the Mahatma – ‘ a rose between two thorns !!’. The whole action being borrowed from that famous photograph at the then Viceregal House, or now the Rashtrapati Bhavan, of the last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Jinnah and Gandhi ..

But seriously though aren’t they, the two roses above, just the cutest little ladies you ever saw ? How quickly the female gender matures and acquires lady like demeanor. They progress faster in the brain too than the male, and I am told start to speak as they grow from birth to greater age, much before the male. Now … there can be many little asides which I am sure many among you would be desperately trying to manufacture at this juncture. But I would seriously consider you refrain.

Sitting with the tribals, listening to their talk on how they lead their life, the food that they cook, the artwork that they adorn their homes with, has always been a most educative and interesting topic. Their simplicity of thought and word and their undisturbed life style despite modern inventions abounding around them, is by itself a great learning. Change their environment and they shall perish. They live by and for the soil they inhabit, and nothing shall effect change in their lives that they lead …

Steadfast as they are … they shall never distort or change even the way they dress or ornament themselves -

I wanted to put forth a glimpse of their jewelry that they decorate themselves with, but this internet is untrustworthy today, and I loathe its inconsistency .. so I shall end while the going is good ..

Good night … another early day tomorrow …

 

Amitabh Bachchan

 

PS : Nandkeshore Pattil .. birthday greetings for tomorrow … and Divya your Marriage anniversary today .. blessings and togetherness always