It is then an adventure of the human to sublimate himself into the arms, symbolically, of those they revere and put before them in all honesty and belief, all that is desired of the Almighty in its numerous incarnations !

It is that time of the year when deity is given its due importance. A time for prayer and thanks giving, of sacrifice and submission, of utter devotion and sublimation. And the dedication that one notices among us, astonishes me, for I believe that the amount of energy expounded at such moments, if replicated into our daily chores and our work, would indeed provide us with ample benefits that would in normal circumstances be hard if not impossible to achieve.

The unknown and the unseen gets the benefit of our maximum attention. The known and seen do not ! The suffering of the poor or disadvantaged that I relive before me, each day that I record for KBC is as much of an embarrassment as any other. To learn of their struggles and their pains in making ends meet, to experience the efforts that they make despite adverse circumstances to reach out to those dependent on them, to touch upon subjects that we would in our normal existence be overlooked is not just enlightening but one that is filled with a huge amount of guilt. Guilt not of being able to do something for them. But guilt of the reason for this inequality !!

The lesser their means the more determined and sorted out I find them. They have principles, ethos, respect and values. I know many among us would pride ourselves with similar attributes, but not all could safely adhere to it. But they do. They that come from the hinterland, from a position of no hope and perhaps no dream - blinded and crucified by the fate of their circumstances - they do !

My experiences in KBC and particularly so in this season have been nothing short of the unreal. I know I sit on a seat of decision, of the right answer, of conduct and decorum … but the privilege of being in the presence of those that sit before me, cannot be described. The concern and empathy for them can never and shall never be an act or a performance. It cannot. Their conditions leave nothing to be performed at … they are by themselves evolving, spreading out and reaching to the very extremes of our sensibilities.

Yes I do dread the moment of being in front of the set and camera and the crew at work, but may I just say that the thought of shaking a hand or giving that decisive result that would make a fortune for them, a life changer almost, is by far something that I shall always cherish and look forward to.

When a Father that has accompanied his wife as a companion relates his agony and pain of not being able to buy a simple toy for his three year old because all the earnings that he and his wife gather, goes off in paying back the loan that they have taken, to not just feed themselves, but also to feed their in laws, it breaks my heart. And then when in the presence of the husband, the performance of the wife touches peaks they could never never have even dreamt of, it is disturbing to see the husband break yet again into uncontrollable tears. They are not tears of joy, this I can guarantee. They are tears that come from disbelief. Disbelief because they have for generations resigned themselves to the silent truth that they are conditioned by fate to lead a life of penury and pain. This victory, this sudden acquisition of means was not supposed to happen for them. They were born and brought up in this thought. They grew up thus, among their family and among those that remained with them in their surroundings. But it happened and happened so gloriously, that their sudden belief in all that divinity was expected to bring for them, materialised.

The good thing is that their faith proved right. Their faith in the unknown, in their Almighty. The bad thing is that the atheist amongst us would score down. In the eyes of one that would perhaps look at the situation dispassionately it would be … divinity 1 atheist 0 ! For them that won, divinity proved right. But there was another couple that had pinned all its hopes on the moment and missed out. They too had their pending long term issues, they too came with the hope of being able to eradicate them, they too had prayed … but they were not heard ! Or perhaps the divine has other and better moments lined for them … who knows ?

“Divinity has that unimaginable power of drawing the most stoic out of their shells into some kind of benevolent servility.”

BE ever in divine .. be in praise of the unknown .. be aware of belief ..

BUT … never submit to the belief if your own belief is adamant ..

Your nature and character could come from the divine … it could also come from your own perseverance and effort ..

You need to decide … not me .. I am but a foolish fool and nothing at all ..

Amitabh Bachchan