Sat there for more than an hour. Just looking towards the sun, eyes shut, taking in the vitamins D, F whatever. Until the dark presence of rain sent me scuttling in.

Simple pleasures of life.

Ram Gopal Varma wrote some exciting tweets and sms’s to me during the day, as is his wont, so I spoke to him and called him over for dinner. It is always a great joy to sit with him and chat and discuss and debate cinema, film, systems, trends. And then drove off to the airport to pick up the wife. And as I sat there in the parking lot, I sped through my tweets and caught one from Shweta. She reminisced about 9/11 and how she was the one that had been the first to draw my attention to the planes running into the World Trade Center in NYC by making the most frightened and panic stricken mobile call. And where was I ?

Inside a plane at London Airport at the edge of the runway about to take off for Los Angeles !! ‘Get off that plane’ she had screamed. And soon we taxied back to the terminal building not knowing what the reason was, only to discover the entire terminal huddled in front of TV sets watching repeats of the hits on the Towers ! There was deathly silence all around. America had shut. We were asked to find our way into London city and remain in contact with the airline till further notice. Four days went by and then finally the airports opened and I flew to Los Angeles to join the crew and unit of ‘Kante’ being shot there.

I had come away from the schedule in LA to attend the Alexandria Film Festival in Egypt, where I was being honored by the Lifetime Achievement Award. I had caught the early morning flight out of Cairo to London and was changing flights to get back to the shoot, when the news started coming in.

For four days we did not leave the TV as we stuck in our London hotel, watching in horror the events that went by. Until, all cleared we travelled to LA amidst the most detailed security routines ever. And then in the US getting down to work and the encounters we had with security - embarrassing at times, at times a bit humiliating, but taken in the spirit of cooperation and in consonance with the situation within the country.

So much has changed since. So much has transpired within this beautiful world of ours. And today as we celebrate three to four festivals and religious occurrences here at home, one wonders how beliefs and rituals and the sanctity of the moment can coincide on one day for Ganesh Chaturthi, Eid and Teej for the northern parts of the country, as also the festive day for the Jain community,  and yet not be able to understand the one common message that all faiths surrender to - peace, forgiveness, togetherness and love.

May the Almighty in all its omnipresence bring us closer to the understanding that we all crave for, within ourselves ~ love and greater love !!

Amitabh Bachchan