Ah !! The joy of working out at the gym again. The adrenalin pumping again and the unused muscles being woken up from their long slumber. Suddenly everything starts looking brighter. The body moves in a different rhythm the breathing improves, there is a lightness in the body and lethargy takes a back seat.

Charged with the fresh blood running in the veins, there is a desire to do more in the time one took to do less. This is so welcome when travel and being out of the house for long stretches of time has piled up chores and paper work that has now begun to collect beyond the nose.

The familiarity of the home and its surroundings can never be replaced with the largest of suites in a Hotel with all its comforts. I am happy about that. What I am unhappy about is that when the eyes open in the morning its takes a few minutes to decipher where I am. Disorientation at its most.

Jaya comes in from Delhi, after finishing Parliament – the last session before the elections and the formation of a new Government. Aishwarya flies in from Kolkata for the night. It is good to see her. She has been away from the house for so long.

Everyone dresses up and we trundle off to the Filmfare Awards.

It is a delightful evening. Something in the air this time smells and feels different. Ranbir and Imran are the hosts and are hilarious ! Such a joy to see them without any shackles, free in spirit, respectful of the occasion and easily the life of the show…

Abhishek performes, Aishwarya and he are in the nominations, but do not win and I go up to present the Lifetime Achievement to Om Puri – a friend, a wonderful colleague and one of our finest actors. My attraction however is his son Ishaan, a delightful little fellow who is absolutely devoid of any self-consciousness and has been most endearing to me. In fact has always treated me as his age group buddy.

Back stage Shahrukh and me discuss his injury and the post operative care. He has had his stitches removed today and has decided to come out. He honors the SlumDog kids on stage. Kareena, Saif and others join us waiting to be introduced on stage and we sit and admire the twosome RK and IK as they move from one award introduction to another keeping the show racing along !!

Arjun Rampal gets best supporting and is moved to tears in his speech. He has really roughed it out in the industry and labored hard. Later in the night he sends me a sms saying how grateful he was to have been the inspiration in his life and how sorry he was that he could not name me in his speech because he was overwhelmed by the moment.. I am deeply touched. I advise him never EVER to forget the moment that brought on that emotion ; that shall and should be his motivation for the rest of his career, I sms back.

Till late in the night we sit and catch up with each other over dinner. Aishwarya leaves early morning again. Abhishek will join her in a day. We have a film to launch on the 2^nd – PAA and his presence is required.

Shanouk has snapped at one of the maids and injured her cheek. He was resting after an exhausting run around in the lawn and I think she decided to pet him then. The maid is the oldest serving member in our staff – over 35 years. Indeed as I look around none of our staff have served us for less than 25 years . I do not know if this speaks well for us or for their tolerance ! Ha.. A few have left earlier too and have been making efforts to come back. But once the trust is broken it becomes odd and difficult to take them back.

Sincerity and trust have this peculiar way of behaving. Take a long while to build and a swift moment to break.

I rest with PAA in my thoughts and how I shall approach the role and the film. Good. Keeps you thinking and active..

My love for you..

Amitabh Bachchan