With my Father at Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s with his wife and Raju Hirani. The joy and pride in narrating to them incidents of his life and times with a comprehensive recitation of his poems, applauded and appreciated by all present. A rarity in today’s times. Where do we have the time to sit back and listen to words written over ages, over reams of wisdom and poetry and thought. To discuss and flow with the essence of life expressed through the verse and mind of a literateur. To have opportunity to ponder, to wonder, to place ourselves in the thinking of the writer and then to eventually be overwhelmed by the sentiment. There is a delight in knowing that there are still those that wish to connect in this material world, with the more artistic and aesthetic. That they would be willing to sacrifice hours and hours of their precious material time in devoting attention to the more sedate and sombre world of poetry and writing.

I feel privileged and honored, that I am able to spend time with them that connect with the works of my Father. It is for me a pilgrimage, that I would want to perform every day if possible. And so yes, it has been  a most satisfying evening. And the only ugliness being the paparazzi lurking around and about Vinod’s house to catch a video bite, a still that would make nondescript news in the entertainment columns of the media. The futility of it all being so significant. And what a destruction of the purity of the moment. A sanctity that bonds so deeply with the moment, being desperately invaded by an utterly rude and ruthless, invasive medium, which will have nothing but a mockery of the situation, either in a late night ‘breaking news’ or some frivolous paragraph under some ‘honey’s hat’.

A pity really that they shall never be party to the finer qualities of life. That their invasion into the privacy of others must make them sick and tired of it, but duty and demand and finance becoming their ultimate need of the hour or moment. Sad ! I wonder often what they go home with and what they do to contend with their conscience.

I had travelled to Lonavala early in the morning. A drive that should not have taken more than an hour and a half, but ended up with about two and a half. Two to get out of the city ! The traffic has become horrendous ! And so has the environment in and around the once upon a time, retreat of the city of Mumbai. Where people escaped to find quiet and rest. Where now people go to get acquainted of the hurly and burly of the city of Mumbai ! Its the opposite now. How time flies and how we tend to overlook what we were doing at the time when this sedate and calm little township, placed just atop the gentle hills of the region, was where we would drive through in the night to have that special delicacy, or to spend a night amongst the mist and fog of the early morning hours.

The mist and fog remains, only now we are unaware whether it is smog or just pollution of the highest order. Back from there by the afternoon and with the family over lunch we discussed all that transpired during the days when this Lonavala was the select place for your second home. Now no more. It is but a crowded city, bustling with activity and commerce.

Tomorrow morning early is the departure for Pench National Forest reserve, to partake in the Telethon for the Save The Tiger campaign, an enterprise that is being conducted by NDTV and one that has been getting my patronage for some time now. There is a plan to ride elephant and look at the possibility of spotting tiger. But I think that would be too presumptuous. Any how, we are committed to the project, seeing Tiger or not ! I do hope there is internet by the tents in the jungle so I can communicate with all, for if not then I would have to travel forth to another locale where this facility would be available.

Good night dear ones … more in the morrow and perhaps from the wilds of this Forest Reserve ~

Amitabh Bachchan