To those that researched, expanded and confirmed the story of AKHTAMARA, my greetings and love…

To those that gave many other examples of stories similar in nature, in their parts of the world .. more greetings ..

To those that sent me copious details of how my writing needs to be edited and correctly written, my sincere gratitude .. I shall still remain incapable ..

To those that complimented the worth of MJ Akbar and his deeds of sincere journalism .. my hand in salute ..

To them that translated the blog of the day into Hindi, directly and indirectly with errors in expression .. my dutiful appreciation ..

To him that enlightened us with TIME and ARE .. our earnest acknowledgements

To those that clamor for the first spot on the responses.. my wishes at your success and sympathies at your frustrations of not making it ..

To those that wait patiently to be ‘yellowed’, my deepest regrets .. I endeavor to complete them elsewhere ..

To those that never responded but read and moved on, only to be back again to express, my heartiest welcome..

To those that had deeper meanings in their words .. my sincere acceptance of greater talent ..

To those that merely greeted and to those that extended their love beyond the thank you.

When one is ignorant of law. When one is ignorant of accountancy. When one is ignorant of formal procedure and matters financial, it is to me some of the greatest handicaps of modern society. The fear of not being able to understand, of not being adept at handling situations that involve all these entities is frightening. It is frightening because the law can spell trouble for you, the finance can rid you of your wealth and earning and the professionals involved can paint a picture for you which you may never be able to comprehend.

The lawyer, the accountant, the personal physician and the family priest have always been persons on whom the greatest faith and trust is bestowed by any individual. An individual that classifies himself as urban. In the rural mid town regions, the rule of personal law, accounts and medication exists. The priest being perhaps neutral in all circumstance. Neutral because he deals with matters that involve the Almighty. The Almighty has unchangeable and set concepts. Those cannot be altered.

But the legal and the accounts can. The courts of law with their millions of millions of judgements and comments and interpretations and the masses of eminent brain power is a world of its own. The same for the accountants and their financial procedures and understanding of balance sheets and interest rates and tax saving consultancies and filings of returns. They conduct a life of their own. And commendably so.

The doctors and the medical fraternity possess the power to check analyze and examine the ailing body and to be able to inform you of where what is wrong.

These few, these merry few, these band of brothers, then become the most important people responsible for conducting your life. A life that continuously gets trapped in either of these subjects. These then are your pillars of faith and trust. They conduct themselves in a manner that keeps us comfortable and protected. They predict and apprehend our problems. They find solutions for us. They win for us, speak for us and drive for our safety. They become privy to our details and to our confidentiality. They are not mere representatives of ours, they become us. They speak the language we want to hear, they guard our homes as we would and control our finances like a concerned elder in the house.

These individuals come about when problems come about. Our problems come about when our excesses come about. Our excesses come about when we take on every opportunity that comes our way. The greater the value of opportunity the greater the complication. If we ignore opportunity, we feel we have lost a moment in life. Yet with every opportunity our burden of excesses increases.

What then is the solution ? We are constantly goaded into being progressive and developed and that does not happen without experimenting with new ideas and thoughts. Anything new and different comes with its baggage of issues. Inviting novelty invites novel problems. Do we avoid them or do we allow them to possess us, for we have the benefit of those merry band of brothers that shall warn, plan and execute our apprehensions.

I have spent an entire day battling with such thoughts. They come about because my merry band of brothers have descended upon this land of the Merlion, the symbol of Singapore, half lion half mermaid, to resolve issues that come about because I wish to harness opportunity. A desire that engulfs itself in the practice of creativity, of artistic content, of humor and entertainment, of bringing cheer in the lives of others, of reaching out to millions. But one discovers that a simple creative act comes packaged in professional legal and CA related encumbrances. Where really is the equation between one and the other ?? The heart rules one and calculations and paper work rules the other. What needs to come through as art, through creation from within, through emotion, gets reduced eventually to a black and white piece of paper. A paper which then conducts what colors we use for a painting, what emotion we demonstrate in front of cameras, how many words we write, what songs we sing and where. All confined within the vast volume of pages and pages of legal financial bindings.

For us our creativity is what we create artistically. For the band of merry brothers it is creativity too as they design that black and white paper. What a mismatch in the two worlds. Both working for the same result with the same aim, but both so different in temperament and form.

In times gone by the word of mouth and trust in the spoken was like a carving on stone - indestructible. Today the word and trust of the spoken has no value. Today a commitment if not reduced to a document whetted by law and finance and other fineries of the system holds no position of relevance. In the days gone by a word lasted and was honored by generations. There was no paper, no signature, no legal clause, no financial interpretation, no nothing. There was just the unshakeable presence of trust.

Today trust in its finest connotation will be interpreted as the name of a financial body built on paper to represent a tax saving or an investment entity.

My love for you .. and I ‘trust’ you will believe, that it is not another broad band delivered cyber spaced black and white, finger punched, five letter compulsion !!

Amitabh Bachchan