I did not go to the gym in the morning. I hailed a cab and drove off to location, since my staff did not come in. I arrived half an hour before scheduled time on set. I sat on set ready for work for 3 hours before they could can a single shot. I wrapped at 2 pm. I lunched at 4. I slept till 9 pm. And have been told that the day is off tomorrow.

The not so wonderful thing. We shoot at night. In rain !!

Pune has developed into a vast metropolis and continues to. There are huge structures and offices and malls and housing units coming up or complete or inhabited. It was not this, years ago when I started visiting it in my early years in the Industry. There was a quiet peacefulness that abounded. It was the city renowned for the maximum bicycles in the world. Now, the motorized version could well compete for that honor. The architecture was simple, soft, blending with the temperament of the city. Tiled roofs, broad verandahs, gulmohar trees and the air crisp and sharp - a marked departure from its mother city a few hours away.

Now, the monstrous modern glass and aluminum ogre like structures, devour the very essence of its past simplicity. Small town culture and ethics always had great charm and character. You knew your neighbor and many neighbors. You knew what went on in the rest of the city, almost. A greater spirit of sharing was present. People walked across for social calls unannounced. My house was theirs and theirs mine.

Now there is isolation, virtually. Life has become rapid and selfish. More attention is given to subjects that brings interest to the personal. In the midst of all this it is so refreshing to hear of the Sawai Music Festival and to observe that the city has not lost all. The interest in music of the earth, of local classical, of maestros from across the country among the young and old is enlightening. There is great tradition for music and dance forms of the classic in Maharashtrian homes. From an early age the young are brought up in its appreciation and learning. Traditional culture and the inculcation of the guru-shishya understanding and respect comes as common nature in all homes. I have found this in prominence in Bengal and in the Southern states too. There is a pleasantness and an etherial quality about it. Its sheer Indianness fills you up with a peculiar endearing emotion…

And then suddenly…

The harsh crash of violence and hatred and killing and destruction, smashes the harmony of the most sweetest ragas..

Tradition and culture and classic and ethos are a nations ‘yagya’. I do not have an appropriate translation of the word. But an ‘offering to the Gods’ in thankfulness and obeisance, would be close enough. In the Ramayan it states that every time a ‘yagya’ is performed, the evil spirits get disturbed. They show their face to destroy this act of godliness.

In our deeds of goodness, we must expect the evil to appear to disturb, to distract to destroy. For goodness is not a quality of any eminence in the books of the evil. Goodness and evil are the forces that balance nature and form. Each wants to prevail without succumbing. It would be an ideal world if goodness existed in eternity. It does, but not without the callous and dastardly attempts by the evil to injure.

Mankind and humanity have existed well, but not without injury. It is their resilience to evil that demonstrates that goodness will always survive the bitterest attempts to demolish it.

We shall remain good until we show the fight to trounce and demolish the evil with all its depravity.

Good shall eventually prevail, but not before it has taken a few knocks.

“Good hard blows are delights to the mind”, wrote my Father on a book he posted to me from Cambridge during his stay in England when studying for his PhD. The year was 1954. I had entered the boxing ring in my School for the first time and written to him of my experience. The book was about the sport and its exciting history.

54 years later the good hard blows reflected on the book still ring true in my mind; now unquestionably delighted !!

Amitabh Bachchan