As I look around and see how the human race is changing and how some of the most lofty values of one time have and are being thrown into the dustbin of time, I can see a new religion called ingratitude taking shape and the number of the followers of this dangerous religion is only growing - Ali Peter John
It is in this atmosphere which is making life miserable not only for me but for millions of others, I am happy to know and discover a man called Amitabh Bachchan who has created a hall of fame for himself, all because of his following certain guidelines here he has set for him and follows very seriously and sincerely for the time since I can remember.
Sometimes, I get this strong feeling that he is born with this attitude of being full of gratitude to all those who have done something in his life which is what it is because of the people who gave him this gift of being grateful for every small or big favour or deed done to him.
Amitabh has lost no occasion or opportunity to let people know how very grateful he is to his parents, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan and his mother, Mrs. Teji Bachchan.
He has often gone on record to say that he has learnt all the values of life from a great poet of a father like Dr. Bachchan and his mother.
They were the first people in his life who inspired him to fight for his place in the sun, without compromising on values and without surrendering to the forces of darkness and defeat.
Amitabh or the enlightened one as his name means, is a greater believer in God and he has his time for prayer even in his very tight schedule and his long battle with time, which is one reason why he is the star of the millennium and the most popular, busy and even richest actor in the country when he is only 78 years old.
Amitabh has never forgotten to show his gratitude to my guru and the guru of Raj Kapoor and many others, K.A.Abbas who gave him his first break as an actor and whether he is speaking in Allahabad to a group of students or at a meeting of the literary figures or lawyers or intellectuals, he never forgets to show his gratitude to the man called Abbas and who he called 'Maamu Jaan' while he was shooting for 'Saat Hindustani'.
In the last forty-four years, he has worked with countless and men and women from different spheres of life and has interacted with presidents, prime ministers and saints and seers and above all with the common man, and there has been no time in his illustrious career when he has forgotten to Express his gratitude to all these people who he says were responsible for making a junior executive in an English firm in Calcutta to grown into one of the greatest
stars not only in India, but all over the world.
His sense of gratitude is so strong that he even shows his gratitude to people who have even come in the way of his success. And what I find difficult to believe is that he is even grateful to his children, Abhishek and Shweta and even his grandchildren, Navya Naveli and Aaradhya.
But, never has his sense of gratitude been more strong than when he walked out of the jaws of death in August 1982.
The day he returned home after that great battle, he did not even have the strength to talk, but he made sure that he Express his gratitude to the millions of people who prayed for him while he was in hospital and the doctors at the St. Philomena's hospital in Bangalore and then the doctors at the Breach candy hospital in Mumbai.
He has taken just moments to thank anyone who has sent him a message thanking him or congratulating him.
His messages on Twitter and specially his own blog which he writes regularly every night have to be seen and read to know what a grateful heart and mind he has.
His gratitude to God has always been an integral part of his life, like it was for his parents.
Soon after he had recovered from that mere affair with death, he made it a point to visit every major and minor places of worship of all religion all over the country to show his gratitude to God When he had first reached stardom, he had men who wrote out letters of gratitude to every letter he received.
Now, he is a master at using the social media to Express his gratitude and his feelings and thoughts on any subject that makes an impact on his mind.
His messages of gratitude are so precious for those who receive them that they keep looking at then, trying to believe that it is indeed Amitabh Bachchan who has expressed his gratitude.
He had done it at all his birthdays, all his succession, all his awards and the latest is his showing his gratitude to all those who have congratulated him on his receiving the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for contribution to cinema.
I who have known him since the time he signed Saat Hindustani has sent him a message congratulating him from a dark and dingy makeshift theater and that very evening I received his message thanking me and expressing his feeling of being humbled by the award.
I have been very lucky to receive many of his letters of gratitude, but the best one I have received and I treasure is the one he wrote to me at a time when the entire press was against him during the Bofors guns scandal and I had gone against the order of my own paper and its owner and had stood by him.
The letter below will show anyone what kind of greatness this humble man has when it comes to expressing his gratitude which I am again sorry to say is a
feeling that Is on it's way out and has even died for some human beings who consider themself to be superior human being and our so infinitesimally inferior.
I am tempted to reproduce his message to me after receiving my message congratulating him - " I am deeply grateful ... and so humbled.