Up at 5 am and down on location at 6 am and bearded and wigged at 7 am and watching this wondrous and intriguing site by 7:01 am. Hundreds and hundreds of windmills to capture the strong breeze in the region and convert it to run the turbines or whatever they turn, to generate electricity…

Amazing !! The hills in the background of an early morning hue and to the other side, just meters away the end of the land sloping into the sea..

These windmills, far from the more romantic ones that abound in Holland and around which many tales bristle with, fairly tales that one came across and read in the early years of school, now swing tales of progress and development, of investment and savings. If you finance one such, the Government gives you tax benefits. Or so, a few suited gentlemen informed me when they came to sell the idea to me. There is a region near Nashik, a prominent city north of Mumbai, a city where I had during the shoot of same film, posted some earlier posts, which has strong winds that blow through the dry and dust laden hills around, that is in desperate need to put these massive structures up. Fascinating !! Had seen similar pillars in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan in the middle of the desert. Imposing and productive.

The organisation TERI that I support and work for has researched that over 3 million villages world wide still do not have electricity and that over a million of them are in India. Dr Pachauri, Nobel winner for the group that worked on environment and us have been closely associated with his programme. The effort is to use solar energy in generating electricity. The Unforgettable Tour worked in conjunction with them, in bringing electricity to at least a hundred villages. The rest of the Tour programme shall continue to devote substantial interest in furthering that cause. There are many instances where causes worked on, become common for other charitable institutions. Like I support a school in Aurangabad for the mentally challenged. A few of us, which includes a Deputy Commissioner of Police and some other Government servants in Administration and the singer Jagjit Singh have contributed towards the school structure, now in its new surroundings since the number of students has gone up and which lies in an area that has a shortage of electricity. So, working in regions for the procuring of power makes sense, since it also jointly then, helps the power needed for the school.

It is interesting how a co relationship begins to exist once work is started in a particular direction.

Jaya and I work along with the organisation, an NGO, Yuvak Biradari. Several activities of the YB get co related. For example. We work in generating electrical power in areas that do not have it. Then after it is provided we encourage children to get educated and study through the schools that we build and once they mature from the education they give time and energy to working in areas, voluntarily, that may need assistance in times of disaster. We subscribed say to YB at the time of the Latur earthquake that devastated the entire city in Maharashtra. And we adopted a village for a month, feeding and clothing them till they were able to stand on their own. Our committed workers, a produce of the many educational institutions we support, then go out and work at these sites. Just as they did during the time of the Mumbai terror attacks and a little while ago during the Bihar floods.

It is gratifying. And somewhere so fulfilling.

The sun gets strong. It burns the skin and has hastened our departure from the location - the graveled road that you prominently see in the photograph. We shall break till around 4 pm. Then back to the final beach and into the water - beard, wig, clothes and all, shivering through every retake that the camera commands..

There’s no business like show business !!

Love you and more later..

Amitabh Bachchan