My wife thinks I’m getting hyper by the day: Shreyas on fatherhood
His daughter, Aadya, hasn’t even turned two, and Shreyas Talpade is already thinking of the day she’d be an 18-year-old, and how different things would be then. Like every parent, Talpade, too, wants Aadya, who will turn two in May, to become strong and independent. And he wants to ensure that while she embraces the new-age modes of entertainment, she’s also introduced to the charm of games he used to play as a kid.
Talking about parenthood, the actor says, “Every time I see a girl child riding a bike, or going to school or driving, or talking to a boy, I immediately go flash forward. I keep thinking, ‘My girl is going to be 10 in a few years, what’s she going to do? When she’ll be 15, she’ll meet someone. She’ll be 18, she’ll meet a boy, what am l going to do?’ So, every time I look at her, my wife tells me, ‘Stop thinking... let her be’. The perspective really starts to change once you have a child, especially a girl child.”
Talpade even shares that his wife Deepti feels he’s getting “hyper by the day” as a father, and reacting on every little thing. “The idea is to make sure that Aadya is independent enough, though we’ll always be there to support her,” says the Iqbal (2005) actor, who turned quiz master for a show featuring students, earlier this year. And while conducting the show, he had some interesting conversations with the participating kids.
“Earlier the saying was, ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. But these days, kids are masters of all trades. They can sing, dance, they’re good at sports and studies. But when I asked them, ‘Do you guys play kanche, lagori or langdi taang in your vacations?’, they were like, ‘What’s that?,” he recounts.
Talpade feels kids today are missing out on such joys, but he’d love to tell Aadya about these games when she grows up. “I’d want her to experience all of that,” he says adding how, as parents, people have become “over protective” because of the times we live in, where “you don’t trust the person next to you”.