This photograph is one of my personal favourites for several reasons. It was taken three years ago when I went on a biking trip to Leh. A moment from then etched in my memory, is of meeting a monk who gave me an entirely new perspective to life and I managed to get him to pose with me for this photograph too. At the time, I had begun feeling that I was done doing comic roles in films. I had done Munna Bhai, Dhamaal, Golmaal and I felt that I should do a Sehar kind of film which would be a bit different from the others. When I shared my thoughts with this monk, he told me that I was very lucky and that he envied me a lot. I was zapped by his words, and stared at him blankly, when the wise one said, “I envy you because you have the power to make people smile." He added that there is nothing more blissful than to make people happy and that I was working in an industry whose sole purpose is to entertain people.

We discussed everything under the sun and what was meant to be a brief ten-minute interaction went on for beyond a couple of hours. The reason I remember it as one of my fondest meetings is that it got me to explore a side of myself that I never knew existed.

The monk told me that people love me for what I do and I need to give them what they love. That is when I realised that it would be wrong on my part to stop myself from doing comedies just because I want to do something different.

I also realised later that the best decisions in life are made when you have the power to think with an uncluttered mind and in isolation.

This photo continues to remind me of the decision to ensure that I never stop making people laugh.