Aboard EuroStar 9023 dep Paris Nord 11:13 am arr London St Pancras 12:15 pm

Still on French territory and speeding to the Chunnel

What makes all Mother’s special –

ANSWER :

When I came home drenched in the rain my brother said –

“Why don’t you take an umbrella with you !”

My sister said –

“Why didn’t you wait till the rain stopped !”

My father angrily said –

“You will only learn after getting a cold !”

But my mother while drying my hair said –

“Stupid rain !”

Quote for the day –

“ I have often regretted my speech, never my silence .”

- Xenocrates

“Either I will find a way, or I will make one !”

-Anonymous

Swami Vivekananda, among other things was a great football enthusiast ! What he said all those years ago still holds true.

“Life is the biggest game man has to play between the ultimate goalposts of birth and death. His dilemma stems from his decisions and relationships; whether he should steer the ball politically or emotionally, keeping control through his creative and artistic integrity. Winning or losing depends on how fairly he tackles the game. Because the rules are already set by the invisible Referee. All he needs to do is play his matches sincerely and without guile.”

Paris Nord station… all entrances to check in and immigration blocked.. people not moving.. stationary.. red security tapes prevent any escalators or lifts or staircases from working… there is bewildered look on the faces of travelers… black and navy blue uniformed, booted and automated machine gun slung, security personnel move about rapidly…walkies crackling instructions in French…

What is it..??

Bomb scare..!!

An abandoned luggage has been discovered at level one..

All trains stopped.

No one moves.

Life is disrupted. Pause button depressed.

Half hour later – ok.. ‘PLAY’

Almost movie like and in film, every action restarts and gets activated from exactly where it had freeze paused..

I am safely now back in London and completely unaware of the abandoned luggage or what the police did with it. And neither are any of the others. Life moves on. A life that has in a sense become immune to such occurrences. I speak to Mumbai and home to reassure everyone that all is well. They had been anxious after I had informed them of the situation. And Abhishek informs me that such incidents often happen at the station in Paris.

Thank you all for your sensitive and endearing reactions to the film on the blog. Many have felt the need to not waste food, many have had strong emotions to it and some have not liked the idea of killing an animal to propagate business. They are vegans and the protectors of animals that get slaughtered for human consumption.

I shall not deny anyone his or her feeling on the situation. I am a vegetarian not by any compulsion or religious belief. I am a vegetarian because of a whim. I have left many other on the same sentiment. 35 years ago during the course of a social evening and in the middle of my drink and a cigarette, a friend jokingly chided me that I would never be able to give up drinking and smoking. I dropped the glass and the cigarette there and then on those words, never to touch it again. The same sentiment went for tea, coffee, chocolate, sweets, Indian sweets, pan, pan bahar, and more recently, rice too.

Once resolved… stays resolved. No other meaning to be attached to it. I shall respect the sentiments of others that have allied, or alien thoughts. Some abhor the killing of animals for commercial and social gain. I endorse that. Though, this is man, killing beast. What do we do when the alternative or opposite happens. Does not the beast itself kill fellow animal to feed itself ?

Which beast is then the greater beast !!

But to return to the film. Many had some emotional reckonings. Mine were slightly different. I enjoyed the film as a whole, but the most poignant moment in it were the children of the family and the expressive faces on them as soon as the food arrived.

The joy of expectancy, the innocent looks of satisfaction on having received the food was incredible ! For them sadly, the father bringing in the food was a part of their daily routine. In their gullibility they were perhaps of the opinion that this is what food looked like, or how it was procured. Could it be that this is what food looked like ! That this was the way it was meant to be. Perhaps the father never told them where it came from. But the excitement on their faces was in my mind the largest or the greatest irony of life. They looked at this offering as being the correct and only way food would be conveyed to them.

My heart beats for those little ones for their innocence and oft repeated smiles of procured satisfaction.

I leave you with love… it is now 3:25 am on Monday morning in London !!

Love,

Amitabh Bachchan