Happy birthday Aaradhya Bachchan: When Aishwarya Rai said inculcating traditions in her daughter came naturally to her

Actors Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan’s daughter Aaradhya turns nine on Monday. Since her birth, the little girl has constantly been in spotlight, thanks to her famous parents and illustrious family name. As the daughter of one of the most beautiful women on earth and granddaughter of an icon of Indian cinema that was only to be expected. Over the years, fans of the Bachchan family have seen Aaradhya grow in front of the camera, though her family has tried to keep her away from public glare as much as they could.

From the beginning, fans have noticed how Aishwarya has been a hands-on mother to her daughter. Speaking about it to Vogue, Aishwarya had said how she spent all her time with Aaradhya. “I spend all my time with Aaradhya, and I have one nanny, by choice. I read comments saying, ‘Ah, she must have an army of help’ and I understand the perception, but I choose this way, which means life is always busy. I respect homemakers for the endless work they do. As far as downtime goes, it’s about perspective—if you believe you’re tired, you will be, so I choose to find pleasure in the moment and experience the present for what it is.”

She had also spoken about the values she was inculcating in the young girl. “I’m a firm believer of the state of the mind, and that’s the means to keep your head above a high level of water, every day. That’s something I’m imparting to Aaradhya—that B-positive is not just a blood group and that everything in life is a learning curve. Experience life in the moment, because you’re going to have to live with your experience.”

The same goes when it comes to imbibing traditions. Aishwarya had said: “I think inculcating traditions in my daughter is natural to me, it is not conditional. That is how I am raised. So what we end up doing as parents, knowingly or unknowingly, we pass on to our children as traditions because that is the natural flow of life.”

“One of the common things that both of our (Abhishek and my) family shares is, we enjoy being Indian. We genuinely enjoy all our festivities, various aspects of our culture and we are also open-minded. We embrace being traditional and we are global citizens. That is the life we both have enjoyed in our growing up years.”

The one person who agrees with Aishwarya is her husband Abhishek. He had once said how Aaradhya was his ‘greatest gift ever’. He had written: “My beauties. A child’s birthday cannot be complete without appreciating her mother. For giving birth to her, For loving her, taking care of her and basically just being a Wonder Woman! To the Mrs.- thank you for giving me the greatest gift ever.... Our daughter!”

And while Aishwarya has often spoken about her daughter, Abhishek has been reticent. However, once when asked what he would like Aaradhya to do in life, he had said that he would like it if she took to sports. “I’d love it if Aaradhya played sports. I think every school should have sports programs. Aaradhya is young right now, I want her to have as normal upbringing as possible,” he had said in an interview to Hindustan Times.

Talking about her daughter being a star kid, Aishwarya has said how despite being in limelight, Aaradhya had retained her innocence. She had told DNA: “Usually, when kids are in the spotlight, they tend to lose their innocence. Aaradhya has still managed to retain that. I have tried to give her a normal upbringing and have never made much ado about it. At the same time, we also have to accept that this is and will be her reality.”

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