Diwali 2006. Dev Anand, the dynamo forever on the move is sitting in his pent house. He sud"denly gets excited and starts pacing the floor all ready to take off as it were. He has three films whose scripts written by him are ready. He doesn't know which one to start first. There is"Beauty Queen", there is a film based on the murder in the royal family in Nepal, and there is a thriller he wants to shoot in Mahableshwar, his favourite hiding place, within a month. Some weeks later, he calls me and says,"Ali aaja aaja, I want to share something very exciting with you". I reach his pent house. He stands up, leaps into a corner, pulls out a log book and opens it. There are pages full of words written in his hand."You know, I have started writing my autobiography. I just started with a few lines one night and now I am all charged to keep writing it. I have been writing all these days. I think sixty three years of active work in this forever fluctuating industry is the longest span for a career in films. So many things have happened. I have seen the struggle for independence. I have seen the dawn of independence. I have seen the strides taken by the country. I have rubbed shoulders with great men and women of this century. I have seen my own growth first as a star and then as a filmmaker. I have been a witness to history in the making. I felt like telling my story as it unfolds without leaving anything untold. Nothing can stop me now".

Some months later, Dev Sahab has filled up a number of log books, everything all hand written by himself, no typewriter, no computer, no dictaphone, only his pen and paper. Some more time passes and he says,"I have to stop somewhere. I have many other ambitions to fulfill. My life doesn't stop here. I have many other things to do. I can write several books about my life and my times, lekin abhi kahani ko rokte hain aur aage dekhte hain kya hota hai"

Some more time passes. Word about his writing his autobiography spreads. Some of the best publishers are waiting to lay their hands on his autobiography but Dev Sahab selects one. He keeps it a secret till the deal is actually finalized. And then tells me it is Penguin India who is publishing the book. The publishers are in a frantic hurry trying to keep their deadline. They want to be out with the book on Dev Sahab on his 84th birthday on September 26, 2007. Dev Sahab wants the book to be released by a leading personality of India. He approaches Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who immediately agrees. It is the PM's birthday too on September 26. Ms. Sonia Gandhi and the leading celebrities from the capital assemble at the Prime Minister's house where Mr. Manmohan Singh releases the book. The next evening Amitabh Bachchan releases the book titled"Romancing with Life" in Mumbai. The very next morning, Dev Sahab joins his publishers for a hectic promotion tour for the book. He covers major cities in India. He then flies to Frankfurt in Germany, from Germany to Sweden, from Sweden to London, from London to America and at the time of writing this piece, he is busy traveling all over Canada. The book is already a sell out and has gone into its second edition which is a record for any Indian writer and the first ever record for a book written by an Indian personality. He is still on the move at 84 and it is almost two months now and he has not stopped for a day. I catch- up with him soon after his book is released in New York. He is a special guest at the 60th birthday of Ms. Hillary Clinton who is busy campaigning to be the first woman president of America. In a tone typical of Dev Sahab down the years, he says,"I could never ever believe that all this would happen with my book. It is an ecstatic experience. The reactions of people wherever I go bring tears of joy to my eyes. I have been loved by people all these years, but I never knew they loved me so much. There have been many highs and many euphoric moments in my life but I think this is something I least expected. Believe me, at times, I feel it is a greater feeling than making a big hit. I have never seen this kind of reaction for any of my films. I don't know what is happening. I am just going on and on from place to place and everywhere I go, the reaction is so enthusiastic that it charges me with the energy to go on and on. With this kind of feeling I don't even have the time to feel tired. I think the book is the biggest of my life. It has excited me so much more and the publishers even want me to go on with a second book but I have asked them to hold on. I have to come back to my first love, films because I am whatever I am, this book is whatever it is only because the film industry picked up a man from nowhere and put him on a pedestal". Dev Sahab is expected to be backing home for Diwali not to celebrate Diwali but to continue where he had left off as a filmmaker which he always believes is basically what he is.