Parul Chauhan (right) with TV mom Vibha Chibber in Bidaai

Parul Chauhan (Ragini of Sapnaa Babul Ka... Bidaai)

I discuss my male friends with my mother and if I happen to like a boy, I tell her.

A mother is important for every child because if it had not been for them, we would not have existed. I have always done things which my mother likes, main unke aankhon ke ishaare samajhti hoon (I can understand what she saying with her eyes). I look at her and know if I have to say a particular thing or not.

On Mother’s Day, I make her favourite food. I also love shopping for my mother. A few days ago, I went shopping and only bought lots of suits and saris for her. I’m lucky that my mother is with me this Mother’s Day.

My mother is my best friend. Whenever I’m low, she keeps making faces to boost my morale (laughs). She does not like to see me in a sad mood. Since childhood, we have shared our thoughts. Till I was in Class XII, my mother would feed me with her own hands. My mother has rarely said no to me for anything.

I remember when I was boarding the train to leave my hometown and come to Mumbai, I felt as if I was leaving something behind. Even after I reached here, I would cry and want to go back to my mother. So my mother came to stay with me for a few days. She stays here with me for some days and then goes back home because I have a younger brother too.

One of my cousins calls my mother ‘badi mummy’. I get so angry when she does it. I feel as if the love is being shared.

I’m from a small town and my mother was married into a poor family. So my mamas would taunt my mother that we were gaon ke bachche. But my mother made sure that we were not like that. In villages, children would give gaalis so we also picked up a few. However, she would scold us so much because she wanted us to be very different. Today, after so much struggle, we have reached this far, and she feels proud of us. She has always been down to earth and made sure we also remember our roots.

My on-screen mother in Bidaai, Vibha Chibber, is also very sweet. I have never called her by her name — I call her ma. At times, when her real daughter comes to the sets, we fight with each other over whose mother she is (laughs). She is really like a mother. If I get angry, she pampers me; and when I’m mischievous, she scolds me.

Zarina Wahab (the mother in Maayka)

Zarina Wahab in Maayka

After experiencing so much, when you have the baby in your hands, you forget everything. Every mother goes through this experience. Every little thing matters then. Just to see a smile and a twinkle in her eyes I would take her to the seaside for a ride on ghoda-gaadi.

As a mother, every day is important for me. On Mother’s Day, my son and my daughter always give me flowers and cards and sometimes they take me out for dinner. It feels good.

Our upbringing is such that even today I am scared of my mother. We are four sisters and all four of us are very close to our mother. After pack-up, I go to her first and then go home. We share a very normal mother-daughter relationship where there is love, quarrels and even back-biting (laughs).

Touch wood, I have a very good relationship with my daughter. We can sit and talk; we are more like friends. There is a lot of difference between my relationship with my mother and my daughter’s relationship with me. When we would go out, we would ask our mother; but in today’s generation, children ‘inform’; they don’t ‘ask’.

My daughter is very possessive about me. Once I remember she asked me: ‘Do you love me more or your sisters?’ I teased her and said: ‘My sisters’ and she got so angry (laughs).

I love having a girl because you can dress her up nicely, make her wear beautiful frocks. Ladko ko shorts pehna do aur upar ek baniyaan pehna do aur woh taiyaar ho gaye (laughs). You can dress up girls very well. Bete ki jab tak shaadi nahin hoti parents ka hota hai, aur shaadi ke baad biwi ka ho jaata hai. A daughter always remains attached to her parents.

My on-screen daughters in Maayka — Neha (Bamb) and Shilpa (Shinde) are very likeable and they are both very nice to me. In television, the mother’s character is restricted to the script and director’s vision. So you cannot identify with mothers on screen.”