We are today a race that is more connected with each other in this era, than ever before. Yet our issues and problems are so far removed from each other. The divide widens, separations occur with greater rapidity, regions become independent of the whole mass, language beliefs and culture exercise their independence and get it, further weakening the strata of our firmament built with love and understanding.

It is painful to see that. Painful to see how trivial issues become larger than life problems, not easily solvable. Or is there something else that we are unable to see behind all this. Is this a test for us all that needs to be undertaken, until we have repaired ourselves. Have we been brought here to clean up our acts, to pursue a line which after the course is over shall redeem us ? It is so difficult to say. It would have been easier had we the answers to all that we ask and want to know. But we do not. And because we do not, we are unable to answer, and being unable to answer pushes us deeper into the realm of belief in some unknown power. A power that in its final analysis, takes a shape. A shape that we all begin to worship. A shape that we have acknowledged as a super natural being ; that of God !

And somewhere in this very complicated life, this image that we have derived, becomes the idol of our worship. It acquires divinity. And the divine is never questioned.

This is an interesting situation. When we do not have the answers to all the questions that life raises, we conveniently pass them on to Divinity. Divinity in all its silence and unknown quality projects that sufficiently without knowledge also. We do not have all the answers, and when we do not we believe that HE/SHE has them. Our reverence builds, converts itself into faith, then religion and all the divisions take seed. Our life has begun to be complicated.

Maybe it has been ordained in this manner. Maybe we are being led astray. Who knows ?

Their have been some interesting debates on the Tv - in particular on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and on corporal punishment in Schools. The Bhopal matter seeks justice and adequate compensation to the victims. Unfortunately though, all that it achieves is slang matches between politicians supporting their respective parties and involving themselves in vociferous blame games ! How does the victim benefit from this is never under consideration. Which party was in power or what action was needed to be taken by whom is not going to get those that lost their lives back. We need to see those that suffered adequately compensated and looked after. We do not need to see whether the Manager and Head of Union Carbide in India, Mr Anderson, was allowed to escape to his country, after the tragedy, conspiratorially or not. Yes he must be made answerable and if found guilty the law must be made operative. But let us not waste debating time on this and forget those that suffered and are still suffering.

I read Rajdeep Sardesai’s, head of IBN 7/CNN-IBN, Tweet on this. He propagated that let all of us that feel so deeply on the issue contribute individually merely Rs 10/- each to be put into a common fund to alleviate the suffering of the victims. I am certain that the amount collected thus would far exceed the compensation consideration, now under debate and controversy. If Rajdeep were to set this up I would be not just the first to contribute, but to further the cause in whatever capacity I may be asked to.

And now to corporal punishment in Schools. The caning and the physical acts of discipline extended by teachers against the pupils. The issue has come up because a most prestigious institute in Kolkata, the La Matinere has had an unfortunate incident. A young student was caned by the Principal on disciplinary action and the incident was so traumatic for him that the student committed suicide. Now, all schools have been banned from caning or any kind of ‘corporal punishment’ to be exercised in Schools.

I studied in Sherwood in the hills of Nainital as a boarder, and I must admit that caning was a regular feature in our stay in the School - there was not a single year when our Principal, the Rev RC Llewelyn, may God bless his soul, did not practice his Cambridge Blue tennis forehand on our bent over posteriors ! Our ‘crimes’ varied. Surreptitiously sneaking out in the lunch break to Dorothy Seat, an idyllic picnic spot situated on the hill above our College, to see the girls from our sister school All Saints, being the most grim. The others being lesser in intensity. Breaking ‘bounds’ to cross over our valley into the Government House to swim in their pool, chewing gum in the Chapel, and playing billiards well after ‘lights out’ !! Innocent fun school antics, which children of the age indulged in, and got punished for.

As students we did not resist or fight against it. It was part of our curriculum in a sense and I think we were better off with it than without. Indeed there were occasions when we opted for it as against, when given the choice of an alternative. Four cuts to missing the Saturday movie and we would go for the ‘tennis swing’. In fact the act was taken as a subject of great hilarity, when your section went in for their common morning baths the next day - the dark stripes on your naked posterior, left overs of the caning trauma, being a signal for the others to take a jibe at you !! It was all good school boarding house fun !

The whole procedure was to me and I would like to believe for others to, a very fair and formal affair, this business of caning. We knew what the punishment would be if there was infringement, so it wasn’t as though you were suddenly caught forcibly and beaten black and blue in front of the entire school. Upon being caught or reported against, we were asked in the most polite manner to present ourselves in the Principal’s Office. Once there, the Principal would check with us the credentials of our ‘crime’ and after he was convinced that we had indeed exceeded the ‘law’, he would announce to us our punishment -

“I’m going to give you 4 cuts Bachchan “, Llewelyn would announce in his cultured Welsh accent. “Would you please step into the adjoining room !”

The adjoining room was the ‘gas chamber’, the ‘electric chair room’ the ‘hang- mans rope’ room. Not literally of course - just kidding with these horrific names !! At one end was a wheel barrow. And I have yet to discover or understand why a wheel barrow. The ‘victim’ was asked to bend down and hold the 2 handles of the wheel barrow. This elementary act tightened the trousers over your now protruding posterior, gave the ‘executioner’ a clear and clean view of the object to be subjected to the ensuing contact of cane against skin, and kept your eyes away from the actual ‘tennis stroke’ in operation.

A drawer in the room housed some of the most well oiled canes I had ever seen, the sound of it opening and a shuffle of sticks as appropriate ‘tool of punishment’ was chosen, indicated to you that the ‘end’ was near.

You were then spoken to again -

“Are you ready Bachchan ?”

A soft and almost inaudible “yes sir” was followed by an audible swish and whack of the first of the 4. Thats it. After the first one, you never heard or felt the remaining 3. The first had numbed the bum !!

Operation over, you stood up from bent position, turned around, trying desperately to catch your breath and restricting desperately from taking your hands on your behind for a good butt rub from the sting, to say -

“Thank you Sir !”

If you did not acknowledge, you were gently reminded to say so and then given leave to leave the Princi’s office. You walked out as calmly as you had gone in, shut the door behind you and THEN … jumped and rubbed your bottom  to ease the pain for several minutes, whilst your classmates laughed and giggled at your expense !!!

So there you see. All conducted in a most civil and disciplined manner. Part of school life. Taught us lessons. Gave us discipline and the respect for obedience to rules and regulation.

But ..

That was 1956 ! It is 2010 now. If now, Abhishek or Shweta or Agastya and Navya-Naveli were to be even spoken loudly against, it would incense me. Times have changed and so have circumstances. I would strongly oppose corporal punishment in schools now.

Just as much as I would oppose the FmXt to being subjected to this rather long and weary post going beyond 1500 words !!

Good night dear ones .. it is late even by my standards !!

Amitabh Bachchan