Its Sunday and time for the people that come down to meet and greet and wave and take autographs and just bring smiling faces to our doorstep ..

Abhishek coming in from his shoot and then yours truly stepping out to meet the fans … always such a joy …

Every Sunday for the past 28 years .. same time, same place, same scenes … it is now getting beyond emotional !!

There are any among you that contribute so much value to this blog that I am honored to have the elegance of their inputs each day. For me as much as it is for others there is so much to gain and learn and assimilate. And yes when I look back at the start of this platform I would never have imagined that one day the days would be in the vicinity of the 800’s. Your support and love and dedication has now tested all possible trials and I cannot but be proud of you. Thank you FmXt, thank you EF, thank you my extended family for this care and love …

Ha ha ha  .. had great teasing spell with Shanouk, my Pyrana Dane. He is so possessive and envious of affection that it disturbs him to see it going somewhere else. For instance if he will see Abhishek being greeted by me with an embrace and a kiss, as I normally do during the course of the day, he will climb on to his hind legs and be upon us while we are still in contact. I have not been able to figure out what exactly it is that he is conveying. It could be envy of affection not coming his way. It could be a feeling of being left out and not included in the embrace, or it could just be an expression of happiness to see all of us in a happy mood. Knowing this behavior we sometimes all of us deliberately get up and start embracing each other with a somewhat exaggerated motion just to see what he would react to and what he would be tempted to do. It is always the same. He wants to be a part of the action !! Is this particular for Shanouk or do many other pet lovers have similar experience ?

The rehearsals for KBC continue at a mock up station in the office and its fun to see production assistants seated in the Hot Seat and playing along doing rather well ! But what is really heartening to note is that most of the crew from the 2000 series still there and around, a little heavier, a little lesser in the hair, but as efficient and enthusiastic as when they first joined. Time and nostalgia has a meaning of its own. Once you leave a particular period of association, once you move on to other vocations, once your time and energy gets diverted to other causes, faces, associations, moments, all seem to get lost and forgotten. But when revived appear as though it was not long before we were all together. And then everything comes back. I feel that now, strengthened more by some of the reactions that have been coming to the release of the first promo for KBC. So thank you all. More is to follow and then shall follow the show itself. So do keep the interest going.

I think one of the most intimate and endearing qualities of a family sitting down together to watch a film in the confines of your own home, on a day and time that darkens the sky even when it is not supposed to, that welcomes the lashes of persistent rain on the glass doors, is beyond explanation. A delightful film on associations between a young couple that wishes to get married but is from different faiths and cultures has always been a perennial favorite with many makers. Todays film was also that - fun, emotional and enjoyable. Shanouk slept through the entire film !!

Later today as I glanced through some of my Father’s works and in particular his biography and his mentions of the time he spent in Cambridge for his thesis, I look back in anger. Anger at the struggle and pain that he suffered in those two years of hard study and labor and to have been constantly under financial pressure to the extent of not being able to buy a meal, to not having sufficient funds to pay for the ‘digs’ where he was accommodated and finally when he succeeded, the horror of not having the money to travel back home to India to share the joy of his achievement with us. 5000 Rupees was all that he was in need of to feed and pay for his accommodation for those two extra months he was wanting to stay, to be present at the convocation, where he would be formally crowned as it were, with his doctorate. He wonders how and in what condition my Mother was able to send him this amount so he could stay back for that moment of his glory and how since the amount was just enough to feed him, he was embarrassed to accept the demand for a celebration by his friends and colleagues on his success. He did not have the money to cater for a celebration and gave some lame excuse for it when his friends persisted that he indulge in such activity. And I look back at the times when he was with me and the pride with which I was able to take care of him, constantly by his side, ready for any eventuality, ready for whatever he may have desired. But all that this man, who had struggled to maintain himself through paucity of funds, wanted, was for his son to greet him in the morning and say a loving good night before going to bed. That is all. Made sacrifices, worked the hardest to achieve that which others had not dared so his children could be comfortable, educated and in possession of some substance that would guide them in their lives. And all he desires at the end of the day is a smile and a pleasant night ??!!

We will never ever know the trials of our parents, the attention that they gave us so we could become what we are today, the hardships that they faced so we could enjoy the benefits that life offers to us all. We will never know, for all we can do is to reminisce those times and lament at the reality that we should have done more for them. Spent more time, heard them more often, held their hands for guidance and support, given them all and more of what they missed in their lives. They gave us every ounce of their blood virtually. What did we give them ?

Amitabh Bachchan