There is so much to gather and to learn when in the company of great minds. There is so much to share and inform when in the company of those that are keen to know more than what they know. There is pride and dignity in the representation of where you come from. And there is great humility in being bestowed recognition and adulation from lands that are far far away from your own.

The visit to Brisbane and indeed Australia has been nothing short of a most dazzling expression of love understanding and care from all. The exuberance of connectivity shown by those that live away yet remain in close proximity, has been most admirable. To be loved is an honor, but to be loved unconditionally is beyond all imagination. The respect and the dignity that one earns during our lives is but a reflection of the quality of life one has led, inspired and guided by the advantage of parental upbringing –  the valor strength and beauty of my Sikh heritage from my Mother, the gentle and poetic aesthetics of my lower middle class environed Father of UP.

Upbringing reflects what we imbibed where we grew up. The formative years of the human soon after birth, are the years considered to design and formulate our beings for the future. We remain in that realm forever. Our pulverization by society in what the world in general offers us, comes after and may have effect. But in my most humble opinion, no matter how impressive future environs and influences become, our own core strength of values, relies mostly and entirely on those early formative years. The years so assiduously spent under the tutelage and discipline of those that brought us into this world !

I am what I was made to be. Through the years I may have added to it through greater influences and learning. But even that, never without the wise and thorough vision and consequent guiding of my parents. What did they instill in me ? What was it, that meant the most to them ? Did they ever ask me to take the wrong path ? A path peppered with negativity and insolence. Of violence and hatred. Of disrespect to social and moral codes. I say with some firmed resolve – never ! This then is the truth, and this then shall be the truth with which my own progeny and theirs to come shall abide and live by.

You may get the liberty to beat me, to rub my face in the spoils of the earth, in the dust and rust of the ground we tread, but the purity of my upbringing shall never succumb to such momentary irrelevant aberrations, that others could be tempted to impose or subject me to. My unending desire and my determination to uphold my resolute dignity shall not be compromised with. And never will.

I also therefore feel, that when I am correct, others shall be correct with me too. There cannot be isolated adulation and respectability. This is not a game of dice where you wonder what the numbers deciding the fate of the game you play shall be. This is indeed, not a game at all and therefore the fear of the spin or spill of the 6-faced black on white on black, shall never be a consideration. That consideration will be reserved for those that play the game, always. Opposing teams shall appear with great fanfare and demonstrate their athletic skills, win or lose and depart. But the pitch and the stadium that they battled on shall be unmoved and stable and stationary, ready to welcome the other players and their skills.

Come sit over me ! Toy with the sentiments of my silent presence. Destruct me with the roughness of your multiple presence, but if you think you shall take me with you when you leave, you have a thing coming !

And so the honor by the QUT ( Queensland University of Technology ), by their eminent faculty in the presence of diplomatic excellencies and distinguished luminaries, is not so much, were it to be put to questioning, a matter of my own pride, as the pride shown by those that bestow upon me. To challenge me would be akin to challenging their sincerity and worth. That, you simply cannot do. Not because they are beyond approach, but because they are beyond question. You could succeed in indicting me and who knows also succeed in legalizing me with harsh judgement, but you shall never never be able to drive me away from the truth of my mind and my upbringing !! It shall take a lot out of you to even attempt such fallacy. And even then it would not have a minuscule presence within me. What is there and what is true is what shall prevail my mind. Those that attempt to override it shall not succeed in overriding fact. Fact is my armor and my strength and my resolve. My dignity shall have the cover of a very obstinate resolve and fact. Try getting past that first !!

Her Excellency the High Commissioner for India Mrs Singh flew up to Brisbane from Canberra, her seat of governance and representation of our great country, to be by us during both the functions that occurred today – the Doctorate and the reception given by the Premier Anna Bligh, who too incidentally broke her holiday time to come by and provide me with salutations during the formal reception she specially held for me in Brisbane’s historic and most modern museum facility, dressed with great finesse in a … sari !

These are not ordinary people, nor are they ordinarily associated with such a show of affection and pomp for a non official luminary. Challenging me would be akin to challenging them. Which I believe would be a travesty of the foolish and the dumb !!

I am deeply honored to be a part of this celebration through their insight and co operation and I thank them profusely for it. In a sense they have elevated me to a position of respect and love. May this association fructify and prosper is all that I can possibly assume and I am capable of expressing. Words need pampering too to come out and express themselves – they aren’t at the moment, but shall soon ..

More follows tomorrow and in the days to come .. you shall be informed !!

Till then assume the very best ..

Amitabh Bachchan