Haan yaar... I just suddenly realized today, I woke up and I'd forgotten what date it was, I just looked at the newspaper and then realized it... Actually, before that, at night, strangely, my son came to me – my wife is at the hospital, she's staying there – and he came to me and said, 'papa, I want to give a hug.' So I asked, 'why?' And he said, 'just like that, papa... I think, I love you'. I found it very touching.

And then I woke up and realized that it was my dad's death anniversary when I saw the newspapers. And I'm glad I'm in Delhi today. I'll go and pray in a while. When good things happen in my life – and I think every day a good thing happens in my life – I feel, I wish, that my parents were here, as my kids are growing up. For example, we had to bring the kids here, we couldn't leave the kids in Mumbai; sometimes you suddenly feel, arre, if I had my parents, you could always leave the kids with their grandparents, but that's not to be. We don't have any elder at home. I miss that, I miss them...

No, I'm sure I can walk in and they won't say anything! I remember when my sister was joining university – I must have been 14 and she must have been 18 or 19 – my father took us to Delhi University. He took us into Miranda College. He had lived in a room there. I think perhaps it wasn't an all-girls college in those years; anyways, the principal had allowed him to stay in a room there. So he took us to the room, and he opened the door, and there were some girls there, and he said to them, 'beta, bura mat manna, main yahan pe rehta thaa.'

When they are a little grown up, maybe, I'll take them along. You need to know your roots... like I, unfortunately – my father's family, I have hardly met. I've known them, and known of them, they're in Peshawar, but not much.

Yes, I just realized, if somebody were to ask me what I did to become successful in this distance – people do ask me that – and I swear I don't know. I think about fathers telling their kids what they should try and be. I never knew what I will be. I just studied, went from one place to another, went to Mumbai and acted a little – and before I have realized it, I have a son who is 12 years old, a daughter who is 10 years old, I am sort of famous, I am respected a lot, I am loved a lot.

And I find love in all the writings on how successful I am and on how unsuccessful I am going to be. He's the biggest star. He's not the biggest star. All the discussions I read about myself, I find love in all of them, they're concerned, that's why they talk about me.

And I just remember roaming about the streets here, as a nobody... I've come here (Gurgaon) when this was a desolated space, once, twice maybe.

I just don't know how all this happened. And I don't know – absolutely from the bottom of my heart I don't know how I became successful. There are better looking people than me, more talented than me, as hard working as me – or maybe more. But why did it all come to me? Why has it sustained for so long?

I've thought about this. And I came to the conclusion that it has happened because I never doubted what I am doing. I never doubted the fact that there wouldn't be somebody to look after me after my parents died – even though there was no one. I never doubted that I would be able to make ends meet for myself. I never doubted whether the work that I do would be a failure. And in fact I feel that as we have it all, we begin doubting – so I need to go back to that basic.

I was just telling a lady here that I have the heart of an entertainer. From the food I serve at my home to the cold drink I serve you, I want you to smile. The heart that I have – the heart of an entertainer – a part of it has always been sensible enough to do the business part of it. But a large part of it, a large part of my heart, still believes in magic. Because I believe in magic, magic happens to me

Also it happens, I believe, because my parents have given me that prayer – that listen, don't worry, you are magic. I don't have any other reason to believe in my success. I can't duplicate it. I can't tell my kids to become the same. There's no way – and I know it. But I think I am surrounded by the magic of my parents' soul. I believe that. I truly believe that. And I don't do anything special – I think of them, I pray to them, I pray to Allah and say, keep them nicely. But I am surrounded by the magic of their souls. So if God takes away from you something – if Allah takes away from you the most important aspect of your life, he fulfills other aspects. And today with my kids, I feel even the vacancy of my parents is fulfilled. I have got a son and a daughter – and I always think of them like my father and my mother, in the sense that chalo yaar, woh they, agar woh hote to main hota, biwi hoti, behen hoti – abhi bhi wohi team hai.

I am alone in what I do – I have a very small family – but I am never lonely. I don't need so much. I just need these 3-4 people to keep me away from loneliness, and I think that's the gift my parents have given me. I'm all alone, I am an outsider in Mumbai, but I do things with a lot of belief. I screw up also, I go wrong, I take pangaas, but I've always stuck to – agar isne galat bola hai, toh take a stand; agar yeh sahi bol raha hai, support; abhi yeh ulta bol raha hai, toh chup ho jao yaar, keep dignity.

It's my belief that so long as I am doing that, I will never be lonely. I will be alone, but I am happy – that's what life has given me, that I will walk alone. My loneliness has always been fulfilled by 3-4 people; earlier, my parents and my sister, now, my sister, my wife and kids. So it's a great gift. On good days, especially in Delhi, I miss my parents, and I do today, because it's a coincidence that I'm here today.

Coincidences happen... two, three years ago, on this day, somebody called me to release some medicines for them in Bangalore. Kiran Shaw. I didn't know her. I said, mujhe Bangalore nahi jaana yaar... and again, I looked at the papers, and realized it was 19th September, dad's death anniversary. So I asked my EA, what medicine? He said, cancer medicine. I said, listen, just fix up a plane quickly, I'm going. They'd even changed their programme in the meantime, and asked why I was coming now – and I was like, I don't know you, but somehow this is connecting – this is about a cancer medicine, and my dad died of cancer, and today is the day he died – so here I am. You have to believe in these things – whether faith, love, magic. The 'non-existent' things for human beings. We have to believe in them. I do.

Also my mom. My dad was very gentle, very honest – and his honesty killed him. My mom was also very honest, but she was a woman of the world. She knew how to fight the world, while retaining her integrity.

I think he was, you know... he was very successful, then became unsuccessful... he was a lawyer, he did not practice... he had a lot of options to take favours from people, which he did not. He went to Peshawar with a lot of dreams, took me also there... but I think somewhere he felt let down, he worried a lot, and I think worries cause cancer. And today it's proven also, in some ways, worries cause ulcers, and other things, and cancers. I think those worries just took his life – otherwise he was very strong, was just 51, no heart disease, never drank, nothing... I think just sticking to impractical honesty and beliefs took him away early.

My mother, on the other hand – though she also died at 50 – she was a go-getter. The training I got from the both of them was – from my dad, be gentle, be religious, be kind, be honest. He taught me shayari, poems.

What I learnt from my mom was – let me put it this way. There are three development stages of a kid – I've been giving lectures so I remember this. The first development should be of the heart – love, art, music, nature, all good things. The second part is development of the head – how to use it, how to develop the intellect. And the third part is, development of the hand – how to put that intellect to use. These three – but in that order. I truly believe that my father taught me the heart, and my mother taught me the intellect.

That's why when I meet people, youngsters, I tell them – please go out, and win your material goals as much as you want – honestly. Don't be like, how a lot of people think, yeh nahi hona chahiye, woh nahi hona chahiye, chhoro, aur bhi gham hai zamane mein. You should fulfill your material desires. Fulfill them honestly, straightforwardly, without owing it to anyone. Don't ask. Go and work for it.

The mixture that I got from them – I think that is the person I am. And so I miss both of them, perhaps differently. When I'm going wrong at work, I'm thinking of my mom, that I need to go out and DO IT, even if it all looks to be going wrong, go and give it my best shot. And when I'm going wrong in life, in my thoughts, that's when I think of dad. Then I'm like, isko maaf kar do yaar. Galti ho gayi toh chhoro na yaar. Yeh ulta bol raha hai, lekin jaane do... You have to overcome a lot of latent and spontaneous anger and disturbance. My dad was like that. Mom would have slapped. So I learnt how to slap from my mom, and how to hold it back from my dad (laughs).