The sun sets through the large glass panes of the lounge at the KL International as I wait to board the second leg of my return to Mumbai, having just flown in from Langkawi after attending and being a part of ‘Determination’ in the conference for the Jagran Group.

The Gupta family that owns and runs this large media conglomerate is a unique example of the old traditional Indian concept of joint families. They are five brothers now, one, Narendra Mohan ji, with whom I had spent some very valuable time, passed away. The brothers and their respective families all over 50 in number, all stay in one house ! They have separate floors, or separate villas but all either in the same building or within the same compound. And despite their seemingly different and distanced living conditions they all eat their meals together and coexist as one family. I had been to their Delhi residence once and was overwhelmed by this most endearing quality of theirs as a family. Initiated by their grandfather, the founder Puranchandra ji, it is his dictat that has prevailed in this concept and the family has respected that even after he passed away. So wonderful to see in today’s times when families are fast disintegrating, that there are such beautiful and practicing examples of the joint family.

During the traditional and auspicious lamp lighting ceremony, a must before the start of any occasion, I wondered how the group got its name, Jagran. The elder in the family told me that it was a name given by their Mother, the wife of the founder. Apparently when the founder was contemplating the formation of the newspaper and was in the thick of its planning and initiation, he asked his wife what he should name the paper. She seeing that he had been up all night working, said ” you’ve been up all night on this why not call it Jagran !”, which, those that understand Hindi will know that jagran means awakening, but it also is the word used when you have remained awake, ‘jag’ meaning to be awake.

I must narrate something which came up just a few hours ago. As I sat in the lounge of the Langkawi Airport waiting to catch the flight to KL, the TV in the waiting area that was tuned to CNN International and which was giving a detailed account of the chaos the volcanic dust is causing over most of Europe, suddenly came up with a close up of AURO !! And then through some Malay transcripts started playing a promo of the film PAA !! Incredible !! I quickly smsed Balki and told him this. He smsed back and said ‘Its a signal Amitji !”. Ha ..

Its time Balki and me got together again and maybe when and if, we are together in Krackow, we shall, as he said over some ‘liquid’, crack something. He has to his credit bounced a few ideas off to me, but we need to hone in. Lets see …

And guess what happened right now ! The first AD, assistant director, on PAA, Vishal, just walked into the lounge !! He has been here shooting for an add., film and is on my flight back. Wonder what Balki will say to this now ??!! 2 signals ??!! Or, time to start rolling film !!

It darkens outside as the night begins to fall through the same large glass panes. Lights have come on, both in the waiting area and the tarmac and the aircraft as they gently glide past. It must be getting close to departure time. I must begin the process of boarding. When I land and get home there may not be time to write again, so this then is the DAY for today.

Many have come on the blog and congratulated on the completion of another year. And I must admit somewhat embarrassingly that I have forgotten which date I actually started this wonderful connection. Maybe someone could refresh my memory on this. Elena from Perm has done a remarkable job in giving some astonishing surveys on our association backed up by statistics of the responses as well. Thank you. Such detailed and hard work.

And oh ! yes … some of you may have noticed that there is now a link to Abhishek’s Twitter account, just above the link for Save the Tiger on the right hand column of the blog. Follow him and let me know what you thought of it. He is on a rather long flight right now as we connect, to New York with Aishwarya. And of course I shall tell him all the reactions that came by for the first promo of his film ‘Ravana’ .. !!

They beckon me now .. I must leave .. Selamat .. as they would say affectionately here in Malaysia.

And many many more of the same to all of you ..

Amitabh Bachchan