Great to have Ash around: Abhishek

How does it feel to be married?
It feels wonderful. I'm back to work. Nothing has changed drastically. But it's a wonderful feeling to be married to one's best friend.

I thought your dad was your best friend?
Can't I have two best friends? I'm a very friendly person.

Is it possible to be best friends with your wife?
I don't know about others. But I am. I guess I'm lucky.

Your marriage was the most talked about event in recent time...
Was it? I was so much in the thick of the wedding and its preparations that I wasn't really paying any attention to what was happening outside . Admittedly, the whole process of getting married and the rituals were unique to me. I couldn't be looking at what was happening in the big wide world outside.

But you couldn't be impervious to the constant attention that the wedding attracted across the world?
I was! I got to know about it only after the wedding. Obviously we knew my wedding would attract some amount of attention. But this? We aren't that important.

Obviously the media didn't think so.
It was their choice to cover the wedding so extensively. If they thought so, I respect that. I've always said that the media is the conscience of the nation. So why not let them do their job?

Some of the attention was excessive and offensive.
If you allowed untoward incidents to take away from the happiness of the moment then you're weak and you don't deserve that happiness. You should know your priorities. We didn't allow lies to impinge on our moment of happiness.

Some of your close friends thought that there was no need to be so secretive?
I don't think we were being secretive. We were just keeping my wedding private. I think we had the right to do that. People seem to forget my family decided to keep my wedding a small affair because I've an ailing grandmother in the hospital. Would I've called everyone if I could? Why wouldn't I want all my friends in my moment of happiness? And I'd have wanted them to be there with us. I can't complain and cannot make people understand. If some people think our conduct wasn't good enough I'm very sorry, there's nothing I can do about it.

The past months have been a whirlwind for you...
I look back very fondly on the entire experience.

How does it feel to have a new member in the household?
Aishwarya is a new and very important member of the family. And she fits in wonderfully. It's so wonderful just to have her around the house. The house starts glowing when she's around and things look dull when she's out. My parents are just so happy to have another daughter-figure in the house.