…….. and into the beating drums of the Bhangra do I proceed to push in a few delicate buttons ! The wedding outside my Hotel window is loud and boisterous and fun and frolicking - weddings always are. Inhibitions are set aside, the best clothing and jewels come out on display and the festive atmosphere is so enveloping.

We were talking on set about College and University days and how in the hostel, when food was scarce or our pockets had run dry, we would find novel ways of feeding ourselves at times. Look for a wedding, borrow an ill fitting suit from an affluent colleague and gate crash the ‘baraat’ as guests and feed ourselves to our limits best, posing as ‘men from the boy’s side’. They are the ones that get the most looked after !! They were mad days of our youth and when you look back on them you wonder how on earth did we ever pull those utterly stupid pranks and succeed.

Like paying a visit to our Alma Mater, Sherwood College the very next year of passing out, spending Founder’s Week there among colleagues and then finding ourselves out of money, not sufficient to buy back a train ticket to Delhi. So what do you do. You get on to the train from Kathgodam in any case, just as its pulling out of the station so no one can stop you, cling on to the doors and spend the rest of the journey on the steps outside of the moving compartment until some kind hearted ticket holder takes pity on your condition and pulls you in to share his berth with you. Except … when the ticket collector comes by ! Then you rush from one carriage to another trying to avoid him … or hide in the toilet ! Eventually of course you get caught and plead your best to be let off, throwing some really big names of acquaintance, whom you really never knew, to impress the TC, telling him of your plight and the dire situations that provoked us to get involved in this unlawful act. To allow at least to get to Delhi and home, whence all out standings would be taken care of. Mercifully they worked !!

And then you grow up and have kids of your own and the first lesson you teach them is to be honest and truthful and to obey the law !

It is strange how matter given to you at an early age remains with you a lifetime. Time and punctuality and its respect came through a simple principle from my Father. “Be in before the street lights come on, or no dinner !”. And how we would cycle our best - we had cycles for transport then - to make it to the house before we lost our dinner. Unless invited, kids never gave presence when the elders were in conversation. And if we were given that privilege, we were to be silent spectators and not speak a word. It was considered disrespectful.

Now … the kids are the first to be invited into conversation and indeed encouraged to give opinion, in the presence of the outsider. And more … most of the time their opinion counts and is applied !

Then sharing ….

The only time that we shared together was either at the dining table, or when we were being given a lesson in Mathematics or the on going examination for another subject. The dining table was at times a close second to the examination hall. Questions on Literature on general knowledge, on world affairs were put to us, as we gingerly spooned our morsels into our mouths. How stories were told to us on the benefits of cod liver oil, a most tasteless health ingredient given to us in barrels as a tonic. The importance of salads, green and of varied colors which we simply abhorred. The importance of not wasting food on the plate and the threat of not being allowed to leave the table until it had all been cleaned up. At times it took us several hours for a lunch or a dinner to be over !! And then the most enticing part of these exercises - a gift if we finished our glass of milk, or tonic ! And what were the gifts !

A pencil that we had admired in a store, a rubber an eraser and the biggest luxury, a geometry box with a ruler ! How much we admired and felt proud of those acquisitions. It was the best that my parents could afford.

And when my kids came into this world and with my means improving, all that they ever cherished were little diaries to write notes on and the girls a hair clip or a small loose change pouch, to keep little odds and ends in. Times change but habits do not at times !

And they remember details of the times spent together when young. My nephew now a qualified financial investment bloke, sent me a funny cartoon which reminded him of an incident I had narrated to him, perhaps when he was just 6 or 7 about a fun debate we had when I was in School, the topic being, whether men should put their shoes on first or their pants while dressing up !

And just yesterday as I speak to Abhishek on Skype in LA, where he has gone for a short break, he reminds me of how we had stayed when they were kids, in the same Hotel he is in now ! I had not even remembered it !

And I … dreading those morning walks that my Father used to take me on, because he would ask me to repeat the ‘tables’ of counting. Something which I was horrible at after the 12th table. But now as you look back you know that whatever counting abilities you possess are because of those morning walks. Unless of course in these times you are allowed the use of a calculator or a computer. I find it particularly amusing when I go shopping in the western world. We purchase and we pay and we know how much we need to get back from the cashier, much before she or he has punched in all the information into their machine to get at the figure they need to return to us. On many an occasion we tell them the amount before and they are astonished at how we are able to have done the counting so rapidly without the help of a machine ! I was in America once and went to see a music concert in a large open air stadium - it was a Michael Jackson show in Jacksonville. We got the really best seats - way back on the last tier of this colossal arena, where you made the most noise and really freaked out. And there was a bunch of girl students sitting next to us who had driven miles to be there. And we got talking and they asked me where I was from, and on telling them India, the first remark they made was ‘Ahh ! Good in Math eh ?” . Note the judicious use of the singular Math when describing a tale from the US of A !!

Alright ! The band had stopped momentarily ! But now its up again and the band is being followed by some really wild singing accompanied by a massive show of the loudest fireworks ! Some thing important in the wedding ceremony must have just been accomplished. I wonder what … !!

Hitting the bed now with my own music … the scenes for tomorrow !

God bless and good night !!

Amitabh Bachchan