They said that a black man would be President “ when pigs fly”.

Indeed 100 days into Obama’s Presidency …
Swine flu !!

Yet another day hibernating in monotonous solitude.. hmm .. not a very colorful start. But enough to make a beginning.

There were a number of chores to be done. A song to be recorded for ‘RANN’. Ram Gopal Varma insists. I try my best to get out of it. He persists, I relent, but plead lethargy and skip it … for today at least !

Such an embarrassing proposition. The recording studio, mikes in your face, technicians ready and fiddling with complicated switches, headphones over head and numerous onlookers through glass shields with expressions that convey anything but congeniality. Horrifying. How do the professionals do it ??

Anyway, tomorrow is another day.

Swine flu occupies the air waves everywhere .. er .. the media air waves. Sorry .. it was sounding ominous the other way. There is concern and fear of it spreading all over. Media though informing us of its existence and spread also fills us in with some frightening stories. Painful to hear and see the devastation tales and its possible consequences.

I think of Sherwood every time an epidemic scare comes across. There was one when I was in Nainital. In the mid 50’s. The entire School was down, all 350 of us boarders. They had to shut down the school and the gymnasium and the concert hall were converted into a mass hospital. Beds all over. 150 of them in each facility where we had our boxing events and gymnastics. Above this was the Milman Hall, where I played on stage, now converted into a convalescing area for us recovering from the flu. Teachers and staff stood in as nurses. Some of them even doing the job of doctors and trying their hand at giving injections to hundreds of us. We were with high fever and all the other symptoms associated with the disease, but we were all together in one large big hall. For us it meant no studies, no formalities of daily routine, just lying around, chatting, playing word games, looking after fellow students who were not doing good, encouraging each other to come out of this moment well and healthy. No rising bell, no parades for inspection, no homework. Just lounging around in one big community, yes ill in health, but never in spirit. And then when we recovered, the absolute joy of getting extra food we got in order to recover from our weakness. Food … always such a major necessity in boarding school and always a scarcity in supply.

But.. remarkably, of the entire school of 350, there was just one student that did not get affected .. SP Singh ! He was in my class. He was in the CLass of 1958. And he was there last year at Sherwood when we all gathered together for our 50 year celebration. Still looking the same and still fit as ever !! Good ol’ SP, the envy of the entire pre Senior Cambridge and Senior Cambridge class, because he could get to play billiards for an entire month while we battled with our illness !!

The billiard room was the object of all our desires. We hung around there to get a game. We bunked important extra curricular activities to just get that table for half an hour. One desperate night when ‘lights out’ had been declared in the dormitory, RC Yadav and I waited long enough for the staff and school to be in deep slumber. Around midnight we sneaked out into the billiard room downstairs and had the time of our life for hours playing the game uninterrupted. Until.. Matron, on her night rounds discovered our empty beds and hunted us out. Reported to the Principal we were hauled into his office, accepted our indiscipline and were given the option of 6 cuts or miss the Saturday movie. We took the 6 cuts. The movie could not be missed. Not because it was something great ; it being an old black and white British classic on an 8mm projector. What was great was that our sister school All Saints were coming to see the film with us. How ever could we miss seeing the girls !!

Memories !! Just that left.

RC Yadav my class mate, an excellent sportsman and a bright student was there at the 50 years celebration. We were meeting after 50 years at Founder’s. Nothing, absolutely nothing had changed in us.

3 months back, RC had a massive heart attack and passed away.

2 years ago Rev RC Llewelyn, our Principal, who’s strong tennis forehand, had smacked us with the finest well oiled canes on our posteriors when we were punished, passed away at age 98 at his home in the countryside in England. Three years ago I had spoken to him on the phone. He had remembered everything of our years in school. When I had told him that I would like to visit him someday since I travelled to England often, he had welcomed it happily.

“Come soon” he had urged, ” there isn’t much time left ” !

I could never get down to see him.

As I sit before this illuminated screen, idle in thought an entire lifetime of visuals fly past. They were indeed the happiest days of your life ; coincidentally the title too of the play we did in school - The Happiest Days of Your Life…

My love and my affection as ever..

Amitabh Bachchan