DAY 831

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Posted on: July 30, 2010 - 12:00 am

Comments: 320

London, UK                       July  29 ,  2010                  Thu  7  :  40 PM

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मेरे प्रिय व बहुत ही निकट परिवार के सम्बन्धी ,

कभी कभी मन करता है की आप सब से अपनी राष्ट्र भाषा में बात किया करूं, सो आज लिख रहा हूँ , और क्षमा चाहता हूँ उन सभी एक्स्टेंदेद फॅमिली के सदस्यों से की वह हमे मौका दें की हम अपने कुछ हिंदी प्रेमी भाई बेहेनों से इस प्रकार संपर्क कर सकें .
इटली का दौरा समाप्त हुआ . सुखद रहा . समस्त परिवार के साथ बहुत कम ऐसा समय बिताने को मिलता है , और हम सब ने इसका आनंद उठाया . अब सब अलग अलग हो गए हैं . अभिषेक और ऐश्वर्या वापस मुंबई पहुँच गए हैं , और मै यहाँ लन्दन आ गया हूँ  - कुछ काम ख़तम करने के लिए .
नया शहर , नए लोग, नया संसार …. अचानक सब कुछ चाँद घंटों में बदल जाता है . यातायात के साधन  भी अब कितने  बदल गए  हैं . जल्दी से एक देश से दुसरे देश  पहुँच जाते हैं .
देश बदल जाता है , भावनाएं नहीं बदलतीं , प्यार नहीं बदलता , संबंध नहीं बदलते , परिवार नहीं बदलते  - ख़ास तौर से हमारा यह छोटा सा परिवार  !!
आप सब का स्नेह इसी  तरह बना रहे , बस यही आशा है आप सब से .


In a short time span boundaries cultures, destinations people and attitudes all change ! From an Italian warm temperament of the skies to the somewhat cooler Britain. A change in climate in more ways than one. What used to take an eternity to traverse now accomplished in just the twinkle of an eye , well almost.
I have often wondered how the people that built these edifices, monuments, architectural wonders, traversed the length and breath of the earth without any means, yet constructed the most lasting and unimaginable monoliths that we still admire in awe ! Transportation must have been moving at 500 frames per sec ! That in film jargon is being able to see a bullet out of a gun in slow motion. Really slow !! Their patience and persistence and dedication needs to be admired beyond all else.
Travel today has become a press of a button. Your ticket is an e-ticket. Gone are the days of that counter foil like booklet that you so diligently guarded. Gone are the days when at the booking counter each leaf that was torn away depicted a journey about to be taken or just taken. Almost like tearing away your destination and identity. There were no security checks, no frisking, no complicated machines that see through your very bones, nothing. Going on a ship or the airplane was an adventure, an occasion. You dressed up for it. You saw the most design  oriented carrier bags and baggage being trollied along elegantly dressed ladies and gentleman. When I went on my very first travel abroad, I had a suit stitched for the journey. Ok, so I had just got married and was in the movies and so on, but I remember even in the 50’s when my Father was traveling to England for the first time, he had to go through similar routine, even though he could ill afford it.
But look at us now ! Track pants, sneakers, at the most a pair of jeans and a bag made of durable chemical cloth material slung on the shoulder, a larger version of which slung by the luggage container belt on wheels and you are out of here !!
Once out, there are endless facilities in waiting that can take you by train, cab, bus to wherever you wished to go. People and agencies around to help and assist the bewildered passenger. Not a care. Unless of course, you are on a bum ride in bohemia ! Now thats a different continent altogether !!
I see the millions of young in the various cities around the world, without a care without a baggage without a tomorrow and I wonder where was the time in my time when I could have done that. Walking aimlessly about, sipping my coke, slurping the coned ice cream, on the base of a piazza or fountain, or by a pavement, picking up little bands of curio memento’s, making acquaintances with other young from other parts, sitting idle on crowded steps along with other alike, listening to that street performer, or just screaming with laughter into an otherwise quiet and silent neighborhood. Where was I then at the time of these times. I want to be there now ! Will I ever get to do that ! Ever ??!!
Move time back ! I want to get off this wheel right now !! Stop ! Stop ! Stop !
NO ! It never does and never will. Look ahead and welcome the sun as it rises to another day !
Love you for your patience and tolerance .. to listen and read all my belligerence !!
Amitabh Bachchan


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DAY 830

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Posted on: July 29, 2010 - 3:29 am

Comments: 322

Rome , Italy                       July  28 ,  2010                    Thu  3  :  14  AM

For the past few days I notice that comments on our blog deliberate, on how we have been responsible in creating this wonderful family, where first we began by being  apart of it and soon have made it into a remarkable platform that has through the 830 DAYS developed itself into a most potent and valuable destination, that now almost regenerates on its own strength. This is the most heartening news for me to hear. I would not have wished for any other, but this. Read not too much into the efforts made by its originator, read rather into the efforts made by the EF in accepting this small but cozy home as their own. As far as I can remember, from the day I initiated the cause of the extended family, there has never ever been any resistance or disagreement on it. Does this then not speak of the willingness with which all our members have so diligently joined in, to enhance and help, in growing the concept of an entire family living in peace and harmony under one roof  ? Does this not speak volumes about our resolve, to flourish this association with aplomb ? This is a concerted joint effort and I feel proud that we have lived and grown through it for so long.

May we continue in this growth, not just in the tabulation of numbers, but indeed in the growth, of what this little square box, has meant for all of us.

As closer closes in there is a sense of pain and lament on leaving the city that had just begun to grow within us. And Shweta, that has just joined in on the Twitter said something most appropriate about the metropolis. She said “If Paris is Venus, then Rome is Aphrodite “. “Other cities”, she said “may have it all and have the most pristine conditioning about themselves ; watch me but do not touch me. Rome has the attitude of embracing you in one big hug “. ” Come hold me and we shall laugh together ” !!

That has been the most articulate description of comparison between the two - Paris and Rome !! The city envelops you like no other and keeps enticing you with its care free and languid countenance, much much more than most other destinations. And now when time has taken its desired toll and searches us to take decision on extending the days here, we are compelled most reluctantly to submit that there is no time left in this trip. But perhaps the next time, or the next … or whatever the Trevi Fountain wishes ..

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Millions of tourists and visitors come by this historic fountain, magnificent in its structure and eminence. There is never a dull moment by the sound of falling water. People just stand by and look and feel the almost ethereal quality of this location. Millions too have through the ages made their wishes by the over shoulder throw of coins into its waters. Where and how this came about and why, is an eternal mystery. But the sacrifice of coins into water has been an interesting pastime in our land as well. In the years when we lived in Allahabad and in the years when we travelled by train, a luxury for us then, every time our train rode across the Ganga River, over its most famous bridge, the elders would give us a few coins and ask us to throw it into the river, with shouts of ‘Ganga maiya ki .. jai !!’ Our job as children was to make sure that the coin found its trajectory away from the criss cross iron braces that formed the design of the bridge. Was it paying obeisance to the river Goddess for safe journey ? We never asked and till today have not. Some things are just left unanswered.

When in Rome for the shoot for ‘The Great Gambler”, I remember doing a  sequence by the Trevi and later traditionally making a wish as I swished my coin into the waters only to turn back and discover little boys, enterprisingly dropping fishing like rods into the fountain with a magnet, to pull all the coins away as their pocket money. Did our wishes go along with those kids ?? Today as we drive by, Joseppe, or fondly Pepe, our guide and chauffeur reveals how during his younger days he along with his gang of friends would be part of this magnetic exercise, filling up their pockets with the change and running for their lives from chasing carabinieri - the cops ! Now of course greater vigilance prevails. Late at night when the Trevi is less inhabited, the authorities clean the base floor of the fountain, collect all the money and send it to the Red Cross !

‘The Great Gambler’, Italy … Rome and Venice … so many stories come flashing by of those times … but for that, will have to devote a separate day !

Today though, let us just dwell by the flowing waters of the fountain and the soft quietness of a terrace dinner by the Piazza Navona !

Buono Notte !! And my love flowing endlessly, much like the hundreds of fountains in this city

Amitabh Bachchan

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