Dampening their spirits amid the ongoing Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, singer Rahul Vaidya and his wife, actor Disha Parmar, have both been suffering from dengue. He tells us, “I went to Pune on September 1, I am sure mujhe tabhi kaata hoga mosquito ne. By the time I got infected and the symptoms started showing, it was the night of September 5.”

He adds, “I was shivering and had a high fever. Those five days were the worst days of my life. Bhagwan kare kisi ko kabhi yeh bimaari na ho. The weakness was so bad that I wasn’t able to get up from the bed for four days.”

Vaidya, 36, says that his wife had accompanied him to Pune, and hence, she, too, got infected: “We are on the way to recovery, but abhi thoda time lagega, kaafi weakness hai. Our medicines are on, we eat only light food and do not workout. I had already committed to an event for which I had to travel for a day in between. Our platelets are also low, so we are taking regular blood tests and measures to improve them.”

Thankfully, their daughter, Navya, who will soon turn a year old, is unharmed. “Luckily, woh nahin aayi thi Pune. Her daada and daadi are taking care of her. She is a calm and independent girl, she doesn’t need us all the time.”

The singer is upset that despite having Bappa home, he couldn’t be part of the Ganeshotsav festivities this year. “We were on the bed the whole time. My mum managed everything, including the prasad and attending to guests. Mere doston ne aake Bappa ka visarjan kiya, hum kuch nahin kar paaye. I felt really bad,” he ends.