Happy for those that loved my verse

Not being adequate is so adverse.

Yes I know you talk of genes

Ha ! jumping jacks and boiling beans !

Far I be, t’ward such greatness dears,

You give me more than deserving cheers.

These are languid, mean less, lesser words

Words and words and words and words !

No heed to them, no cause and reason

Just gluteus, bore-sum, ugly flotsam !!!

The world is small and so intriguing. What goes up comes down, what vanishes once takes a while to turnaround.

While I work today I discover my director having family links with those that had links with my family years and years on. Amarnath Jha, the Vice Chancellor of the Allahabad University at the time my father was there and with whom there was a great respectful association, has turned out to be a grand uncle of Prakash Jha my director of ‘Aarakshan’. LK Jha a distinguished and prominent bureaucrat in Delhi and with whom my parents had a close association and who’s daughter Piku Jha studied with me in the Delhi University, the petite, soft gentle and a most cultured and wonderful wonderful person, is a close relative to Prakash ji ; his aunt. Piku married Kenneth Maharaj Singh, a colleague of mine in the University from a different College and with whom I was chosen as one of the three men that were to perform in a play in Miranda House, the ‘it’ girls College !

And I just cannot believe that this conversation came about quite by accident on the sets today. Goodness what a small world and how life brings it around in the most peculiar way.

My Father’s biography and his days with the Allahabad University are full of descriptions of the time spent with Jha Saheb, as Amarnath Jha was respectfully called. His meetings on education, on life and the course of his own personal pursuits, in particular his decision to go to England to do his PhD in English Literature, all coming from Jha Saheb. And the most remarkable incident that occurred when my Father had gone to the office of Jha Saheb for his very first meeting.

Jha Saheb was not in the room and my Father was asked to wait for him at his desk. While waiting, my father noticed a few jewel stones lying on Jha Saheb’s desk and he stated playing with them when suddenly the V-C entered. In his nervousness the stones being played with, got disturbed and one such stone fell off the pile on the ground.

On noticing this Jha Saheb in his powerful and grand voice immediately blurted out to my Father :

“Pick that up Bachchan ! That is your stone !”

The stone was a blue sapphire, an astrologically very powerful stone according to Indian astrological tenets. Known to bring great profit success and wellness when worn, and also for its devastating negative effects if it does not suit your horoscope. A stone that is recommended even by the experts to be worn with great care, because of its great pro and anti qualities. It is worn as a ring on the middle finger and my Father took that stone home and wore it as a ring for the rest of his life. After his passing away we have kept it secure in the house. The incident happened in the 40’s, my Father passed away in the early 2003. Wore it so, for over 60 years every day !

I have been also recommended similar blue sapphire stone to be worn and  have been wearing it from the late 90’s till date. Stones of various kinds and value and color and intensity are a common recommendation from those that study horoscopes as a scientific profession, and this recommendation and the emerald on my small finger has been given their blessings. I do not know if the effects as they say do actually work, but the sincerity with which it is given and the purity of its intent by family, coerces you to keep it on.

Ah ! Those days of yore and its nostalgia are so infectious. Every thing comes back like a memory page of a well read book. Each character well defined, each incident clearly enacted, each moment vivid and full of detail. Who would have ever imagined that sitting in Bhopal, miles and years away from Allahabad and Delhi, on the set of a film being shot inside the College premises of a renowned Oriental College, the director of the film would suddenly bring up this association and topic and talk. At times one feels it has been all ordained by some force, as it were. A force unknown to all of us !

There are then the patterns of life which we are so unaware of, but when they do occur, it is difficult to ignore the thought that someone sits and plans very meticulously, the how and when and where of it. Believers shall have theories that may support such argument and equally the non believers shall have their strong protestations, but it would be very difficult to completely do away at times, the manner in which tides of time and life perform and unfold !!

Would I have ever imagined that the process of typing in a few thoughts every day would build for me and for many others, an association, a ‘family’, that has become a force to reckon with, in deed and word and action !! You were all just another name in my existence, but now a powerful personal presence - aliteration and all !!

My love to you .. do not be too taken in by the astrology .. and yet may you perhaps learn not to ignore it entirely ..

Amitabh Bachchan