Laughing through a killer disease

Words come easy for this VJ, tagged by some as a cute, adorable one and others as the one who is laughing through a killer disease. But believe me, diabetes and his daily dose of two insulin injections are far from being every aspect of his life. “I want to have.... three children,” he says when asked about his future. “Though, I think their mother might object.”
Returning to more serious sublect he says, “I am an RJ, a VJ, an actor and a writer. I am a jack of all things, master of none.”
We know him as a VJ and people in Mumbai know him as an RJ, but the writer and actor? “I have been dabbling in writing off and on, written columns for some publications
And am working on the script of a film right now.” As for the actor in him, “I am doing two films, first a chic flick called Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana, where I star as Kim Sharma’s husband and the other film is called Saturday Night, where I play a roadside mechanic, Kareem,” he says.
Being sarcastic is his nature, he says, “Everyone has a streak of arrogance, mine s just observational humour. If there is someone does something wrong, instead of shouting at him, I will just pass a sarcastic comment. Since people out here are not used to these sarcastic takes, I get tagged as arrogant.”
The one thing he hates about himself is that he is extremely disorganised about his paperwork. “At the end of every financial year, I get franctic calls from my dad and my brother, ‘Have you filed this document. Today is the last date.’ And I am totally lost for a couple of days but then like all times, they too get over.” That explains his attachment to his family. “I don’t know where I would have been without my brother and my dad.”
So when can we look forward to seeing someone who will take care of these matters? “If you are talking of marriage then there are definitely no plans as of now. My family is after me to get married but that’s because I am post-thirty for them. I mean, I have been working from the time I was seventeen, so now it has been ages to them seeing me work.”
When can we see more of him in Delhi? “I am currently working on a play with Kushal Kriplani which is about lies. It is a monologue and I hope we can open the play here in Delhi sometime in May,” he says.

Published in Hindustan Times Next on February 8, 2005