Life and nature have many different ways of expressing themselves .. there is the acceptance of great enthusiasm at what we would in normal circumstances call ‘job well done’. And simultaneously there is the regret and shock of what man does to man .. not satisfied with this, nature or Mother nature wishes to express itself too and shakes its belly with thunderous appearance in and around the same center that has aroused consternation and temper, in the morning.

A regularity of this kind diminishes the faith in normal existence. There is no fear, just acceptance and a complacent look at all that goes about. Life and its frailties, uncertainties, keep reminding us from time to time that we are not and never shall be the masters of our own destiny, for just when we begin to assume that that is what our strength is, the earth shakes itself in disapproval and at the other end fills someone of us with a mind full of vengeance and destruction and death, without any gain or purpose. What guides them to this state. What incites them to take life away from another. How do they ever exist when they know that innocents that they may never have even seen or heard, shall be wiped out in one fell blow … and to what end ? I have no answers !!

I am indeed very disturbed at certain procedures that puts others suspected of wrong in confinement. I am disturbed and angry at the temerity of the operations that take away the lives of our own. And I am helpless in front of the wrath and anger of the elements, reminding us of its absolute presence when all else fails or lies dormant.

There is but one solution which I believe belies all else … it is the solution of work ! The heavens may break and slide away or down, the rivers may flood and destroy, the oceans may part not necessarily as per the Bible … but work within all this has a habit of destroying all else ! Some work for the need, others for the need of fulfilling a dream, and some for just work .. its manifestations being admitted as some that needs to be done just to be occupied.

I think one reaches a stage in life when all that he or she wishes is to be at work, irrespective of its value or meaning. There is no wonderment, no apprehension of the outcome, just a desire of being in an environment because there is an environment. It is a stage where nothing seems to amaze you, scare you or even distract you. You may never acknowledge the fact that certain aspects of our lives get built around by us and not necessarily to compliment us. It may well be the other way round. But by and large one reaches a stage when it would not matter. And that is the point that signals a point of no return. Many of us shall reach that destination and drift away, unaware of the fact that they are being drifted away in this sea of temptation not by your own choice but by the circumstances of life. Its acceptance is the most vital. I accept it not because I need for it to be vital. I accept it because it gives me the involvement of work. For, without it, there would never be the need for any thing else.

Small steps taken in any particular direction, need not necessarily be small. But … they must be firm and in firm belief ! Belief it is that shall become our guardians and our resolve. Without it all around us would look so pale and pallid ..

Love to all and in small but believed moments ….

Amitabh Bachchan