“In the hustle and bustle of life, where was the time to sit and think, that what I did, said and believed, was good or bad ! “

Taking off from Bhopal and ‘Aarakshan’  early in the morning was a heart wrencher ! Suddenly no urgency to be up and gym and be ready in time for the call sheet, to prepare all night at times for the scene the next day, to be on set in the environs of a crew and cast set and prepared for the days’ work. To face the camera with anxious expectation, to enact as directed and perhaps endeavor to give more than that. To ‘pull the legs’ of eager assistants, to fake anger at the dress and continuity departments for not having done their job or to tease them about the goof ups they had committed. To spend patient time with the junior artists employed locally for the film and calm them before each take. To meet the admiring crowds at the Hotel Nur-us-Sabah, a picture here an autograph there. To sit on designated chair in the sparse room, watch the score at the World Cup and to share the feelings for the day with my EF on this most precious platform…..

All gone ..! Put on memory mode and pressing other complicated buttons for the oncoming days and their routines !

Mumbai !! … back into the enormity of this metropolis ! Everyone on the move, somewhere someplace ! A vast vessel filled with ambition and the need and desire to do something. What a city ! Fills you with adrenalin the moment you touch base !!

A drive down further north in to the city and its widely spread suburbs astonishes you even more. These places were wilderness marsh areas not so very long ago. And now bustling with high rises and roads and highways and people and vocations and malls and … goodness ! where all does mankind go for its survival and habitation ! What should have taken not more than a cool and smooth 15 minutes to get there, now took us an hour and a half. And as I looked forward into the endless highway, as we idle in stationary condition, I am reminded of a similar traffic scenario once on a drive from Los Angeles to San Diego - miles of red on the right, miles of white on the left. The red, the rear lights of the automobile, the white the their head lights coming in opposite direction. Its the USA, so the left and the right !!

And while on the US of A ! Always wondered why the way of traffic was opposite to the way in say UK. Same with Europe. Why the light switches need to be pushed ‘up’ in America to put them ‘on’, as opposed to them being pushed ‘down’ in India or the UK. And the electric plugging system - a nightmare for those that travel often and with electronic essential gadgetry - to be different in each enclave ! Did the Americans in their anti-communist belief prefer to be driving ‘right of centre’, as opposed to ‘left of centre’ !! And Oh ! the problems we faced on power, when we wanted American electronic goods, but found them to be at 120V, when the rest of the ‘world’ was on 220 ! Frustrating days then. Now of course they build goods that accomodate all power ranges, thankfully.

But among all these idiosyncratic revolutions within us, we just cannot seem to keep away our thoughts, as day after day, hour after hour we see the devastating images of the Japanese horror unfold through fresh visuals on our television screens. Stories of survival, of facing the most trying odds and circumstances brought upon it by nature !

No words or expressions deep enough to describe what the people must be going through ! We can offer nothing more than support in prayer and in donating what ever best we can for their relief !!

Prayers also go out to Nishit’s co worker friend who has a 18 month old daughter Madison Lasley, suffering from a rare cancer and presently in a hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan .. we hope she recovers fast and comes out safe !

Love to all … and good night !!

Amitabh Bachchan