DAY 1956
Jalsa, Mumbai Aug 23/24, 2013 Fri/Sat 1: 27 AM
Up at 7 am to reach for a dub for ‘Krissh 3’ .. Rakesh Roshan father to Hrithik and the director and producer of eminence, asked me to do a voice over for his film .. I agreed and that was done ..
Rushed then to YRF to partake in the rehearsals for KBC … yes this year it is being held at YRF, closer and hopefully quieter and more disciplined a facility .. and walking lunch, and a frantic drive to Sony Office some miles away to launch the KBC Aapke Shaher Mein Bus .. a bus that travels to different cities in the country carrying a mock set up of the game show and allows residents to come up and feel the experience of sitting on the mock Hot Seat and play to questions sent me me through satellite ..
Followed then by a frantic and very disturbed media, for a conference .. another drastic rape in the city, a young 22 year old photo journalist gets raped by five men, in the daytime at the heart of the city, in a deserted mill compound .. horrendous ! Protests and sit ins to show solidarity with the victim who is in hospital … and a country wide outrage ! What is becoming of this city and many others. Thus Mumbai which took pride in the fact that it was the safest city in the country, that women were respected and felt safe at all times .. that city today becoming another rape capital … so disgusting and sad a day !!
Just a day before there was this most loving and dignified cultural festival of 'raksha bandhan’ where a sister ties a 'rakhi’ on the wrist of her brother and seeks protection. A day of immense love and affection towards those sisters that seek protection … even when there is the absence of a biological connect, many men adopt a sister or sisterly feeling with the woman with whom they pledge respect and sincerity and a bond beyond … that day not half gone and we have this most dastardly act at a location a few feet away from the most bustling region of Mumbai ..
Catch these criminals .. and bury them under the law of the land as rapidly as possible, giving them the severest of punishments ..
The media mobs you with numerous questions that ostensibly should have been asked for the launch of this vehicle … but no … the rape, the doctored tape … now fake and worn out through its topicality .. people seek a political connect, media seeks, but the reality is that there never was such … the cause was an infringement of representation, and that is a crime larger than any perceived political exigency ..
Wading through the multiple microphones of the Tv, and the excited crowds at the offices of Sony, one drives again barely without a moment to breathe, for a satellite interview with Barkha Dutt, the famed journalist and Tv anchor .. that done it is time to brief the office on the schedules for the coming film and Tv work, and finally to the 'little one’ who now finds, at last, some interest in my beard … I mock eat into her stuffed 'fishy’ and she gives a beat and then in her most coy voiced shrill blurts ..
“What’s Dada ji up to … ?”
And now … after various failed attempts at watching a project on film, one sits back, dresses the hair through a dresser that comes over to the house and flings all other illusions to the winds to get to the Ef .. what an joy … !!
My love to you as ever and remain well, with a gentle prayer for the upcoming time of incessant and prolonged attempts at the KBC now about to begin .. would you do that … ?
The board, behind which a 'differently challenged’ young girl on a wheel chair and about to be crushed by the surging well wishers, needs a picture with me , which I readily oblige .. and on it the comments of what the tag line of the show should mean ..
The Tag line : 'even today and each day I seek to learn something, for if there is no learning, there is no victory’ ..
Good night
Amitabh Bachchan
