“You are on KBC,” the message came from my dear departed friend Rituparno Ghosh one fine evening in 2001.Scratching my head over that one, I was soon getting SMS messages from all and sundry telling me that the Kaun Banega Crorepati host Amitabh Bachchan had spoken to a contestant from Patna about his “dear friend’ in Patna.It was a moment I cannot forget till my dying day. What does it mean to a journalist from Patna to have the greatest star of Indian cinema call you out on his show? Or what is it like when he does a guest appearance in a Kannada film on my request and that too free of cost? When the nervous producer tries to give him a token compensation, an expensive watch, he tells the producer, “I can’t accept that. Subhash won’t like it.”Or when I send some guests from Patna to meet him he insists that they call me in his presence to tell me that he met them.The incidents of Amitji’s generosity (he gets very annoyed when I call him ‘Sir ji’) are legendary. This superstar goes out on a limb for those whom he calls his friends. In 2010 he was in Patna to promote a film and was to come home for dinner in the evening. God knows how the Patna junta came to know he was coming home. By 6.30 pm my street was swarming with thousands of excited fans.I panicked. I suggested that we cancel the dinner.“No, Subhash. A promise is a promise. I had told you that whenever I am in Patna I will come home.”He came. He saw. And boy, did he conquer! The crowd parted like the Red Sea for the mighty Bachchan to enter my home. He then got out of his vehicle, and plunged right the crowds with folded hands as his security guards ran behind him.The question that I am most frequently asked about the entertainment industry is, what is Amitabh Bachchan like in person? To this, there is no easy answer. Not even those closest to Mr B knows what he is really like, not even Mr B himself. I suspect he always tries to be the best version of himself, and he succeeds.The first time I met him (most reluctantly, I might add, since Jaya, who was a dear friend from long before I got to know her husband, insisted) Mr B hardly spoke two sentences during our entire meeting. I sat in the most uneasy silence ever, and finally said, “Aap kuch bolenge?”He smiled and shrugged. The next day I met him at a shooting where he came forward to warmly hug me and apologise for his palpable silence the day before. “I had taken very strong medication when you came to see me.”Medication apart, Mr B is a man of very few words. He loves to share silences with close friends and family and thinks conversations are a highly overrated activity. Left to himself he would rather watch a film, read a book or play the piano when he is not shooting. And shooting is what he enjoys the most. To Mr B his work is his life. He wants to work round-the-clock. His family doesn’t stop him.“He is the happiest when he is working, so why should we stop him?” says wife Jaya.Once I had gently suggested that he should take it easy. He had snapped back, “I am getting work, so I am happy to be working. Do you have a problem with that?”No problem with that at all, Sirji. We want you to keep working forever. If only you could work with directors who are not awed by your presence. If the truth be told, there has never been never will be another star like you. That’s it. Jo keh diya s