Divya Kaushik (BOMBAY TIMES; January 9, 2020)

Soon after winding up her day-long schedule in Delhi recently, Neha Dhupia was set to fly to Chandigarh for another event. She was literally counting hours to be with her daughter, Mehr Dhupia Bedi. “I started shooting when my daughter was just 45 days old. And now that she is growing up, I look forward to spending as much time with her as possible, even if it is the time when she is sleeping,” Neha tells us.

“Mehr hasn’t seen me or Angad (Bedi) on screen as she hasn’t had any screen time yet. But we have magazines lying around the house. And since she can crawl now, she saw me on one of the magazine covers and recognised me. When Angad’s pictures are in papers, she can recognise him, too,” Neha says.

The doting mama says that her daughter has learnt some words and she can’t wait for baby Mehr to talk to her. “The first word I taught her was ‘bas’. She should know when to say enough. If the food being fed is too much she says ‘bas’, if she is being forced to do anything or if somebody is pulling her cheeks more than she would like, she knows that she has to say ‘bas’. She knows how to say no. Strong women raise strong daughters and I always tell my daughter that if she is not comfortable, she should just say it. The other day she was playing and somebody tickled her and she said ‘bas, bas’. So, she knows when she has to say no, and she would apply it for the rest of her life now. As a mother, I want to raise my daughter believing that she has a voice and she should know how to exercise the power of that voice,” shares the actress.

She also proudly reveals that her daughter has started showing interest in cricket. “She spins the ball very well. It’s cool to see her do that. We are a family connected to cricket, everyone knows that my father-in-law (Bishan Singh Bedi) and Angad used to play cricket. I grew up watching a lot of sports. So, as parents we couldn’t be happier to see that she is interested in sports already,” says Neha.