Go Ahead, Raise the Bar, Amitabh

Sunday evening: I am watching Amitabh and Shweta on Koffee with Karan. I have been a big fan of the family: right from Amitabh to Jaya to Abhishek and Aishwarya. Shweta was a surprise, an articulate person, she floored me with some words she used and her general outspokenness. Something about the family came out, a distinguished family, a very apt first family. For example Amitabh said Shweta is a good writer and that she should write more. Then I remember that her grandfather was a great writer and it must run in the family - the idealism, the concern for the downtrodden, the urge to write and express. Amitabh also write well, there's a basic flow in his language which I like and he is the quintessential blogger, good at putting thoughts into words with ease and panache. He would have made a good writer if he tried to make a mark in that field. Well, I don't want to gush. I guess I am. 

But a slight offbeat note was struck towards the end by Shweta telling her father not to raise the bar. For whom? For everyone. Now, to this I must object. Amitabh is a fine person and he should raise the bar. If not for himself, for the world. He has broken records in stardom, at the box office, in TRPs (with KBC), personal charm, and the like. I have not met him but he is one of the most witty and charming men around. Now what does Shweta mean by asking him not to raise the bar? 

I am asking because people hint to me to do the same though I am in my early fifties. In spite of what they say - the crap about we respecting our elders - we don't even tolerate our elders these days, forget respecting. Shobhaa De said life begins at sixty, not forty. All the accomplished people I know are in their sixties or thereabout: Amitabh, Shobhaa, for example. Sorry, I confess, I have a memory lapse here. Well, some of my favorite musicians and poets would have been in their sixties, were they alive (actually, weren't they to self-destruct): Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Freddy Mercury, Ginsberg, Silverstein, et al. Why should they stop raising the bar? Because the generation of today are too lazy to raise any bar at all? I heard my son also saying something to that effect. I am sorry. But, I will never lower the bar, I will keep raising for all it's worth, all I can. We were an idealistic generation and we love raising the bar, in whichever field we are. Try and catch up.

So, my adivce to Amitabh, go right ahead, sir. Raise the bar for all you can.