Happy Bisakhi to all our FmXt … love and happiness and good cheer always !!

For those that have not understood the word ‘mama’ .. its the hindi for uncle and not mother as has been described in many of the responses. So do make those changes. It is Jaya’s Uncle, her Mother’s brother that passed away ..

The meetings get more and more intriguing and interesting as the doors for fresh work keep opening and getting shut. A whole array of ideas and scripts keep coming on for film and television both. Time I guess to pull up my socks, fold up my sleeves and get down on hands and knees to feel the smell of the earth and soil. It shall be quite a while before I face camera’s again and it is a strange feeling always when you are away from a practice that comes in at you regularly. Its like swimming or riding a bicycle, you may be years away from it yet when you start it all works. I am hoping that when the cameras shall start rolling similar fate shall follow.

Mumbai at 6 am is a delight. And this has had the benefit of description earlier too. But Mumbai at 9 am is such a different world that the one at 6 stands out quite prominently. From just about nowhere the traffic appears in droves and in the Northern parts of the city, where we lesser folk find abode, the three wheelers appear like motorized humans and invade the spaces. They are a boon to the ones that have the option of short distance commutes, finding themselves torn between private automobiles and the train. But it works and so they flourish and multiply like ants in the entire suburban region. They are a great joy of convenience to so many. I too had the great pleasure of riding them at a crucial moment. No not the one in Bangalore, or now Bengaluru during the shooting of Sholay, but here in Mumbai when it was difficult to get to my car and we had to find an alternative. Excellent seats, a bit bumpy once you get on, stereo phonic music, psychedelic lights, and the joy of being incognito. A few curious onlookers glancing perhaps at us and then - ‘Naaah ! couldn’t be them. And in a rick ? Forget it !

As I drive in at night to Prateeksha, routinely behind the wheel, the three wheeler shall invariably drive by at a traffic signal and indulge in conversation. My health, my film and generally if I was alright would be the conversation. The driver of the 3-wheel spots you first and then after exchanging pleasantries, shall nudge their clients sitting peacefully at the back of our presence, the occupants almost pouring out of the rickshaw, with large smiles and a multiplicity of hand cameras on mobile.

Hand cameras on mobile have a life of their own. And those that operate them live an excitable existence. They are everywhere, at all locations and twists and turns of our lives. Out of the car, into airports, at immigration, at security, in the aircraft with the hostesses, walking by, walking on … just about everywhere !! They were an impediment earlier on and the thought of someone invading your privacy without so much as asking your permission, was grave. Now it has been reconciled. If it is inevitable, we allow it to happen and keep shut. And so shut it shall be.

The air belongs to everyone. So when the prospective mobile movie machine plants itself inches away from your nose, it is difficult to say the space belongs to me. The advantage thus derived by the mobile owners, becomes a part of history. We have still not been able to come across a suitable technique to quell this uprising.

IIFA will be at Colombo in SriLanka this year and when KL, Malaysia is done and over by the 17 th, we shall start the proceedings and preparations for the press meet at Colombo. Soon after it shall be Krakow, Poland and Paa. There is an Indian University established there too, which invites me for a cultural connect with the students and the establishment of a chair in the name of my Father. I am honored.

Poets writers artists shall always be remembered more when they have left for their heavenly abode, than when they were alive and human.

My love to you .. and more

Amitabh Bachchan