The Sunday well wishers, and i walk down or the first time after release to meet and greet them. Not recommended, but how can one disappoint these gracious fans ..

This solitude, this nothingness, this vacant time, must I endure till the body grants me leave of absence from them. Instead of the apprehensions of studio visits and scenes and delivering of texts from screen plays, its how many more minutes before the next game starts that shall occupy my time. How rapidly and without asking time changes your life, leaving you groping to find answers and solutions. The ability to accomplish that which gets thrown at you, must surely be the tests that are on offer. Succumb to it now, succumb for life.

So brace up and face up, without complain. Be at it, something will give.

It was sad to see the loss at cricket yet again to Australia, but soon after, to see the massive victory of the Indian team against France in the hockey qualifiers for the Olympics. A drubbing meted out at 8 – 1, and a final confirmation of India’s participation in the Olympics. The jubilation that the team and its management exhibited was as though the Gold had been won. Time was when such qualification was an automatic choice. The early years of the game and the mastery of the great Dhyanchand at International forums when scores reached 20 – 0 in our favor. So great was the stick work of the great maestro, that competition and the judges wondered whether the hockey stick used had glue on it !

Debates and discussions and articles on the disaster that the Indian Cricket team has been facing lately in all forms of the game abound. It is depressing to se2 and hear and read such reporting, and to find how quickly opinions change when performance suffers. Its much like in the movies and with the actors who go through this test with every film release. Expectations, hopes ride high with each product, and when you do not deliver, the dams of resentment and accusation break loose. It is with this in mind that keeping away from celebrations on success is a recommended option – it may, God forbid, last but 7 days. Those then, that create for public consumption, must constantly live it this shadow of fear. A driving force for some, a moment of complacency for others.

I wonder at times what drives those that succeed beyond limits, to continue and pursue. The food is secured, as is the roof and clothing, but yet the penchant to gain more, to grow and expand never ever lets up. I see big corporates and large business houses, relentlessly breaking backs over further profit and profile. Of reaching untouched barriers and still more. And I watch them with astonishment. How do they do it ? And if they are doing it should I too be thinking thus. How do they choose to lend their might and their accumen towards fresh and new ideas. What is the guideline they deploy to hire the right people to run it ? How can they monitor all that transpires in their vast empire, and where do they get the inspiration to do all this. Puzzles me.

Maybe I should not be paying too much attention to this aspect. Perhaps peace of mind in whatever has come my way is sufficient and enough. Best that it remain so.

Better to worry about setting the alarm for 6 am to catch the Oscars !! Something to look forward to …

Amitabh Bachchan