The event was sombre and quiet through out the day. Everything seemed toned down. The music on the streets, the people the gaiety the colors. Everything. There was celebration, but hushed. There was laughter and song but subdued. And those that ventured out were disciplined and controlled. Was it the presence at strategic spots of the police ? Or was it just the times. No one would know. It is best at times not to.

I chose to spend most of the day with my Father. I had started to write the foreword to his ‘Madhushala’ in Kanya Kumari when I was shooting there, but time constraints and hectic schedules had kept me away from it. I found the time today and executed a great amount of work in the solace provided by him and his writings.

Forewords written by him in 1933 and in 1956 were such an immense joy in reading and to be assimilating his thoughts. I shall share them with all of you once it is up and ready. So profound and wise. So educative. Such brilliance. And the world kept away from of all this greatness. Each letter and word, each sentence flowing with such lucidity into the hearts and minds of his readers. We have done nothing to bring it to the reader, but now we will and it shall be novel and great.

The evening went about in clearing up some relevant paper work with respect to our plot in the Society. Land is a grave problem, in any corner of the earth. There is never ever any clarity in its existence or its purchase. Most legal battles come about when there is dispute over land, that is if it belongs to you. The questioning on propriety has always been through generations of argument interpretation and debate, mostly unresolved and stagnant. This has been a great revelation to me as a human. Acquiring land is a long and tedious procedure, but having done that the advice is never ever to leave it. Land appreciates with age and time. You may not have that with you in your life span. But nothing to stop one from securing his belongings for a rainy day, for the future and for the progeny. There is a possessiveness about your own real estate, which when challenged causes concern and often a lot more than just that.

I am presuming it will resolve itself in short time. Possession matters often consume the maximum effort to formalize. I expect this to be no different.

I have been entirely consumed by my Father’s words. They ring fresh thoughts and ideas into the reader. They are genius in content and have gone around unnoticed and without mention. A great pity. How true the premise that the words of the poet and writer often never get the due recognition during their lifetime. Once gone we lament their absence, but hesitate to acknowledge their literary presence.

Creativity rarely does - invite attention for those that have been through, stifling and horrendous tasks, for the sake of art and culture. It is a rare phenomenon. A phenomenon that needs to be liberated.

And the more I remain with my Father the more I realize the weight of his each word and its futility in emerging as the lantern held up to show the path on a dark and insidious night.

But my right as his son will welcome the lack of attention to his Father, for it then encourages me to present him to you in my own inimitable way. A way I knew and many did not. That is the strength that I grow with now ; to selfishly be in possession of matter that has been hitherto unknown to the world.

My love as ever -

Amitabh Bachchan