Amitabh Bachchan speaks at The Telegraph Anniversary Debate on December 2, 1990, at Netaji Indoor Stadium, an event he mentions in his blog

Calcutta kept Amitabh Bachchan awake on Thursday night. The city’s “jamai babu” was busy blogging on memories of his “favourite city”, on the eve of his weekend visit.

Metro visits his blog (http://bigb.bigadda.com/) and reproduces excerpts with some syntactical changes.

There is travel again. To Calcutta to attend a function for the school run by Basant Kumar Birla’s daughter at the prestigious Netaji Subhas Indoor Stadium. The very same, where on my insistence, my producer and dear friend Habib Nadiadwala shot those exciting song sequences in the film Yaarana. What a moment it was and what a trip to our favourite city, Calcutta.

My years of service as an executive in the city notwithstanding, Calcutta has always been a passionate and overwhelming experience. The people there can and have the ability to pick you up and throw you up in the middle of the atmosphere without as much as touching you.

Lovers of art and music, lovers of great sports, lovers of their politics and most importantly their ability and their incredible spirit in functioning under any circumstance, makes them for me, the most enthusiastic and loveable city to be in.... Calcutta is Calcutta. There is something about this first Capital of India under British rule that still bristles and evokes.

There are of course any number of incidents that bring back nostalgia, but since we are on the topic of Yaarana and the Stadium shoot, I shall never forget a moment that remains as an unforgettable experience in my system.

The capacity of the Stadium is about 15,000 seated. We were shooting inside the arena, surrounded by a capacity crowd. There were on the day about 25,000 inside and more than another 50,000 outside the Stadium. When you try to seat 25,000 people in a 15,000-seater there are bound to be problems. When there are problems, the security in the shape of the police moves in for control. When the police, a most hated entity on occasions such as this moves in, there are disgruntled elements. When there are disgruntled elements there is discord and high-voltage reactions. To control high-voltage reactions, a member of the audience got inadvertently hit by a cop on duty. Hmmm….Not a very good idea in this city… !!

All hell broke loose. The Calcuttan passion is not just reserved for enthusiastic morale-boosting ego. It has extra reserves of energy for moments that had just been instigated.... A general state of uncontrolled mob hysteria followed. Surrounded on all sides by this angry and furious crowd, the police formed a protective screen around all the crew, now whimpering inside this bowl of trouble, much like accused offenders in the Roman Coliseum thrown open to the lions!!

(We were) led into our cars and asked to drive like hell out to the hotel — the Grand, not too far away on Chowringhee.

But the 25,000 inside and the waiting 50,000 outside ran into each other and now became a fan frenzy mob eager to see their favourite star. There is now no visibility. We are surrounded by this mass of humanity, whose anger from inside the Stadium has remarkably switched to adoration and love. But adoration and love too has its moments of excess. This is Calcutta remember!

It was just a movement into a mass of people, clambering on this rather timid looking Ambassador car with screams of adulation.... I think we had moved a couple of feet in about an hour when the unthinkable happened!

Yes! You got it! The car stalled and refused to start!

And then the moment happened. I call it the spirit of Calcutta.... Around 25-50,000 people full of passion and excitement virtually lifted and pushed and carried this car of ours more than a mile all the way to the door of the hotel, pulled us out and saw us safely inside!! Incredible!!! And only in Calcutta!!

I am the ‘jamai babu’ of Bengal! I married a Bengali. The respect they have for the jamai, perhaps, bodes well with them and saved me!!

I am back in that Stadium for the school function. I have visited it on two occasions since — a concert and a debate conducted by the leading newspaper there, The Telegraph. But that was in the 80s [December 2, 1990 actually]. I return there after about 20 years. The Stadium, not the city.

Now with age and passage of time the enthusiasm will have eased and ebbed towards me. It happens. Celebrity invites these repercussions and changes. But Calcutta will always remain dear to me. The seven exciting years of my life as an executive, working in a company and then the visits after joining films shall never leave me. They are imprinted within, along with the love and affection that came my way from the city and its people.

Lord!! It’s 2:41am!! I never realised!! See, that’s what Calcutta does to you!!

Do you agree with his description of Calcuttans? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com