In the house with Leela S.

Along with dear Nandita,

They travel far and do confess

Korean chocolates are lot sweeter.

This is in keeping with Nandita’s request to indulge in matters immensely more rhythmic. She liked the verse and for some strange reason felt when she read them, it made her feel she was trotting away in the countryside on horseback ! I do hope her short ride today was worth it ! Ha ha !

But seriously though, such a joy and a pleasure to meet up with the two this evening, and to invite them to the shoot tomorrow and to receive all their generous gifts. Leela S who has travelled all the way from South Korea, leaving behind her English teaching classes and who speaks fluent Korean, despite the fact that she is a Trinidadian from Canada, with ancestors from India in Bareily, taught me the first two alphabets of the language - A and B with their particular pronunciation, simply because they were my initials … cute !

And the time spent with them, further strengthened our conversation on the blog yesterday, about this wondrous platform that has been patronized and kept alive with the help and interest of our EF. Thank you all. What a wonderful world we have created and how uniquely it has been functioning and growing ..

And pheeewwww ! What a game just got over in the World Cup - India vs England. A tie !! Had our hearts in our boots right till the last ball was bowled. We should have won, but then so could they have. Such was the flow of the game. Superb ! One of the best I ever saw live ! There have been some other fantastic games, but not ones that I saw live on TV.

There is move here in this city to christen it as Bhojpal, instead of its present Bhopal. Bhojpal was apparently its original name, a name it got from the great warrior King, Raja Bhoj. A thousand years have passed and the city celebrates his stature and contribution as not just a valiant ruler, but one that excelled in literature and the arts and culture too. An astute politician, an astrologer, a medical specialist and gifted with many other valuable traits, his larger than life statue gets unveiled tomorrow by the banks of the great lake. A memorable symbol that would be a most strong identity for the city.

While on culture and arts and literature, I was wanting to bring to the attention of all my EF, on a marvelous book written by Vipul Mittra, Secretary Tourism, Gujarat with whom I had the great pleasure of spending most of my time during the making of the Gujarat Tourism films, called ‘Pyramid of Virgin Dreams’ - a refreshing and humorous rendition on the life in bureaucracy in India. It has been released to rather lavish reviews and has moved up to to the number one best seller in its category in some of the book stores in Mumbai.

And with the reading request comes another evening of reading of my Father’s works here in Bhopal. The students at the College that we were shooting at were most cooperative and disciplined during our days spent with them and I thought as a gesture of my appreciation, I would give them an evening of ‘kavya paath’. Preparations are on and soon the production shall announce when and where it shall be held. I believe there is a short break for me by the 1st of next month and that would be ideal for me to get back into rehearsing myself for the occasion. Bhopal has always been a seat of great learning and now being looked upon as a valued education center. Its literary past and its cultural presence in the present has always been reviewed every other day in the media. It would be a delight to relive some of my Father’s works for them during my stay here. A tribute to my Father yes, but a tribute really to the knowledge city as it were.

I rest now, for the moment .. the Oscars in a few hours and I hope to catch it ..

Love to all … and much more …

Amitabh Bachchan