Still in a daze about impending fatherhood: Abhishek Bachchan

Ever since actor Amitabh Bachchan broke the news of daughter-in-law, actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s pregnancy on Twitter, soon-to-be-dad actor Abhishek Bachchan can hardly contain his joy.

The excitement is hard to miss, even though Abhishek admits that he's ‘still in a daze’. “I don’t think it sinks in completely for any parent until they hold their baby in their arms,” he shares, adding that he’s just busy savouring the happiness, as congratulations continue to pour in from family, friends and fans.

In fact, all guests at Jalsa are even greeted with mithai (a family tradition) — an assortment of motichoor laddoos and pedhas — two different varieties to not air further speculation of the baby being a girl or a boy as is common practice.

Recalling the earlier constant speculation about them being in the ‘family’ way right after their marriage four years back, Abhishek says, “We had always maintained that as soon as we had some good news to share, our fans would be the first ones to know and that's what we did. When mom was expecting me, Pa had wanted grand-dad (late Harivanshrai Bachchan) to announce the good news, and he did that by writing personalised letters to inform all, back then. We wanted to give the same joy to Pa, so he announced it on Twitter, to reach out to our fans first.”

The excited father-to-be does not want any kind of stories floating post the announcement of the baby to mar his happiness. “I have better things at hand to think about.” Like names for the baby? “We haven’t started that yet, but we will begin soon.” And will it be from ‘A’ as well? “Let's see. May be,” he smiles. Confirming that it’ll be a November baby, Abhishek however laughs off rumours of them expecting twins.

Fortunately for the actor, most of his films will not require him to shoot away from home. “I would’ve any way put everything on a back burner for my family. They always come first.” At the moment, however, what’s keeping daddy Abhishek busy is his ‘first baby’ the forthcoming film starring Bachchan Sr, after which he plans to “catch up on reading a lot of pregnancy books,”  he smiles.

Admitting that it’s the best gift, he’s ever gotten, he says that it might be tough to find something as precious to gift back Aishwarya. “I can’t promise her the best gift, but loads of pampering — that’s assured. She’s brought us all so much joy, we couldn’t have been happier,” says Abhishek, adding a quick ‘Touchwood!’