Ok … its becoming addictive … this life of idle nothingness. And I now begin to register why Goa has been Goa all these years. I have been coming here since 1969 and with some regularity. But this trip has been almost like my very first. And I have to say that the impressions that I carry back, whenever ‘back’ happens, shall be somewhat nostalgic and one of wanting to be back in a hurry.

So being the most reticent among my near and dear ones such strong comment does seem a bit odd and out of place. But what can one do. When love strikes, it hits you like a bolt of lightening. And yes, it has struck. This little part of my country now invites me as often as possible and I know that from now on it shall be most difficult to not concede.

Music has always had that unique quality of conjuring up thoughts ideas and visuals that define something that perhaps does not exist, but that can be made to exist in form. As one listens to various forms of it, situations begin to crystalize within our imagination and they are so fascinating. As younger men we would put on some of the latest LP’s as they were known then, or the winding gramophone machine with the needle head on that lacquered disc, to get all that music limited within this invention, into our system. Provided of course the elders were not in. It was looked upon as a sacrilege if you were seen to be enjoying the discs, instead of immersing your head in your text books. But you played them, and imagined yourself in various formats. A dance floor, a cinema situation, a story line anything. And lived in that make believe world.

Now fortune has brought us into that ‘world’ and asking us to ‘live’ and let me tell you its not quite the same thing anymore. Now there are several other thoughts that run through the mind. Its not mere fun. Its business and returns and costs and box office pangs of the uncertain. It is exciting all the same, but not without its drawbacks.

I wonder then if the earlier was not the better. Perhaps. But then all the trappings of the present would not be available. Would we be able to do without it. I wonder. When you had nothing, there was never the fear of losing anything. Life was freer and calmer and devoid of so many other encumbrances. Today it comes with all the burdens that we carry and that we built ourselves into.

So what to choose ??

I have no concrete answers. And thank the Lord that I do not. Remember, he is the most dangerous man that has nothing to lose. Spoken in assessment of the Father of the nation by the British. And what a perfect life analysis of the human it has been. They applied it to Gandhi ji, you and I can apply it to a lot more than just one individual.

Basant Kumar Birla and his dear wife Sarala Birla, son and daughter in law of the great Ghanshyamdas Birla, the pioneer and doyen of Indian business and Industry, have had a book written on them by eminent journalist Rashme Sehgal, being promoted by their daughter in law, Rajshree Birla, wife of Aditya Birla, under whose name stands the Birla empire run by his son now Kumarmangalam Birla. They have had a long and endearing relationship with our family from the time of my Father. They had wished that I write the foreword to the book. It was a daunting task, but I just finished it this morning in between splashes in the pool and the sit out in the sun, peaking through the swinging palms. When the book publishes I shall put it up for your reading pleasure.

And now to bed ! To wait in anticipation for Navya and Agastya tomorrow … and all that shall follow …

Love

Amitabh Bachchan