A night shift today for ‘INDIA 24/7′, all the way at Madh Island,through horrendous traffic and delays. It is also RGV’s birthday whichhe reluctantly accepts, after informing me of it, as I drive in. Thescene is centered around the dining table and yes there is food to eatin the moment of the camera rolling and yes there are retakes and yes,therefore, there is simply no room whatsoever for dinner atPrateeksha.. ha.. ha !!

Little Rahul, recovered now from his adventure yesterday, is today asmiling and bubbling bundle of joy and fulfillment. Efficient AD’s keepcoming in droves to reset the food and the materials required forcontinuity, after every re take and when it is satisfactorily done webreak and come home.

Its been an exciting day. The meetings in the early part, even as Ibathe in the morning sun on the lawn, with Shanouk wildly chasing hisplastic water bottle all over and around me, have been progressive andfruitful. 15 minutes of running wildly all over, tires canine in thissweltering heat. And soon he starts to seek cooler climes inside thehouse, tongue hanging out lazily and the breathing 4 times that of thehuman. Or is it 7. His desire, his ultimate desire, is of a soft bed orlanding or the soft cushion on the drawing room sofas, which heoccupies in stately fashion, snuggling his rather enormous mouth withinthe softness of the upholstery.

My yawn is now matching Shanouk’s. I shall retire now and catch upwhen we awake, to complete todays blog - a trifle delayed I am afraid,but absolutely necessary.

I have checked myself today and now. await progress !!

Up and rested and ready to face another night shoot. Sorry for notbeing there with you earlier. I was uncertain what my thoughts wouldhave sounded like, had I continued. Actually part of the reason forturning in was fatigue. Not from work, but fatigue of another kind. TheMac suddenly went berserk ! On opening Entourage to access all mymessages, I found that there were 965 of them !! That isa ridiculous figure. I am not that popular. But there it was and itstarted downloading messages that I had already seen and addressed anddeleted months ago. Really strange. So even after the entire afternoonhad gone by and much of the evening in the downloading, I contactedreliable Savio, of Computer Systems to ascertain why this washappening. He said probably some settings on the comp had beendisturbed and that I should go to the mac.com account and delete allthe stored messages there. This was another revelation ! I discoveredthat every piece of information, mail sent or received was there in abank on record.

Oh ! Brother ! The cyber is some agency man ! It keeps track of youeven when you may think that it does not ! That is some news ! So now Iawait Savio to educate me on how to monitor all that, retrieve andtrash at my will and perhaps sleep in the comfort that some whiz kid isnot tracking you down !!!

Yesterday Jaya dug out some more material from old paper work. Poemswritten by my Father in his own hand and addressed to me, which perhapshave lain unknown without publication. This is invaluable treasure. Iam trying to get them scanned so I can give an opportunity to thoseHindi lovers to share with me the absolute joy of their presence andfor those that do not know the language, to provide them with atranslation.

Along with the paper work were some old photographs. Photographs atthe Rashtrapati Bhavan when I received my first Padma Award from thePresident of India in 1983, almost 25 years ago ! I never did have anyrecord of them and never knew that my Mother had kept them away safely.

It is such a nostalgic moment when you see old memorabilia. Theoccasion, the people, those around you, the dress codes, the attitudes.Suddenly everything comes back, clear as crystal. Such a fascinatingsystem that functions our brain. Asked about those times, would perhapsnever have elicited the kind of details that now flow out as one seesreferences. And they talk in the world of science yesterday in themedia, of procedures now being structured where they shall be able toremove and erase memory from your brian. Memory primarily of what youmay want to erase - a bad experience, a fear an apprehension that couldbe disturbing. Gosh ! What if due to an error they remove all memory.Devastating !!

There have been some interesting interactions with the media oflate. All of them I must admit of value and much positivity. There ishealthy talk. And talk of building bridges, of wanting to understandeach other. I respect that. There is talk of preconceived notions fromboth them and us and the desire to rid ourselves of them for betterunderstanding and functioning. This is a happy situation. Some of theirperceptions were misguided, as were some of ours. But healthyinteraction would be the way forward from both and that must be put topractice.

There will I believe, never be a situation of completeunderstanding. The nature of the business would never warrant that.Accepted. But any step taken from either party to respect each otherssensitive position must be lauded.

We learn that accessibility is an issue. That they feel alienatedwhen they desire to interact. And when they are unable to do that dueto deadline and time constraints, they go ahead aggressively against,without care for clarification, since we were not around to give it.Could be a fair argument. But just because we were unavailable does notgive them the liberty to misreport. We too have deadlines and importantchores to attend to during the day. We have a trying profession - aprofession that requires mental alertness and agility andconcentration. We may not be in desired state to deal with your desiredstate.

Contact ability and relationship with the fourth estate was anothertopic of discussion. The refrain from them being, that we were not aswelcoming as some of our other colleagues. That in such a pass, theimpression that was going down was that we considered ourselves to betoo arrogant and having a complex of superiority. This was vehementlydenied. We may have had our own opinions, but they never ever rode onill mannered behavior. Never. Yes, we may have mutually agreed to notacknowledge each other, but that has never given rise to ill temper orrudeness. Colleagues have and are on first name terms with the press weare informed and we are not. This they say, is the disadvantage that wecreate. I do not think that addressing someone by their first namegives them a position of advantage in society. I could well be inadvantage even by respectful other means of address. Surely this mustfall in line with personal choice and ethics. Our unapproachabilitycould well be our desire to be left alone to do our job and let the media do theirs. If it were to be stipulated in our professionalcurriculum that once a day it is mandatory that we discuss and informmedia what we are up to, to take their advice on the purpose of givenactivity, to seek judgement on where to go and what to wear and what tosay, surely that would rob us of our individuality and freedom. It isnot deliberate that we behave so. It is just that it is not in thedomain of our job. Conversely, it IS in the domain of the media todiscover and enquire and ascertain information. But is it to be derivedthrough compulsory means ? I would think not. Part of the business ofmedia is the capacity they must have to be able to function thus,assisted or unassisted by their subjects. They may get it right, theymay get it wrong. Just as we make a movie assisted by our own personalbelief and passion. After a year in the making when it is finallypresented to the outside world we may get it right or horribly wrong.That is the risk we take. That is the risk, in fair play, that medianeeds to take too. But media, due to its great capacity and strength ofthe medium, will always have a position of superiority. How much ofthat is balanced in a free society is where all the debate andquestions come in.

I have no doubt in the integrity of the media. I also have no doubtthat they operate within ethical codes of conduct. This is mostadmirable. But please do not denigrate our codes of conduct. Bring abalance of equality and give us an opportunity to play fair.

So in all.. a great lesson to be learnt…

Healthy respect for both parties. The abhorrence of any kind of biasand the desire to propagate an accountability, acceptable to both. Howwell we adhere in all honesty to these basic tenets, can go a long wayin building that bridge across the many oceans that at times separateus.

I have ranted far more than is desireable. It is also time for lunchwith the family. I must rush now. But do ponder over this and … LETSTALK !!

My love for you as ever…

Amitabh Bachchan