by Subhash K Jha

Priyanka Chopra has returned triumphant from her first speech on Tuesday evening on an international forum.

"I was in Kuala Lampur for only four hours. I landed, gave my speech and flew out to Mumbai. It was rather scary because I was addressing a very distinguished international audience. But the speech went very well. The question and answer also went well.

The speaker after me was Sir Tim Berners Lee, founder of the world wide web, and before me was Dr Jeffrey Sonenfeld, founder of Yale.

So I felt I was sandwiched between two stalwarts who'd crush me. Fortunately I stood my ground. Other speakers included Donald Trump and Gerald M Levin (former chairman Time-Warner Inc). In comparison I was just a novice."

Priyanka was proud to be addressing a world forum. "The challenge was big because I was representing my country. I felt I did a good job. Of course I'd like to represent my country more often. I feel I've so many puddings to dip my finger into. It's all exciting and new. I always had a social side to me.

I don't like to talk about my social activities except when I need to bring media focus to an issue, like an AIDS campaign. I feel we celebrities need to create an awareness about critical issues. It's our way of giving back to a society that's given us so much love and adulation."

It wasn't just the nervousness that she feels about her first- ever speech on a global forum on 1 August that makes Priyanka Chopra jittery.

She's also terribly apprehensive about her father's surgery for which he leaves with her mom for Boston on 6 August. "I hope this will be his last and totally successful surgery. We've gone through enough stress and need a break now. Hopefully Dad will be totally out of it."

Unfortunately she cannot accompany her parents to the US since she'd shooting in Mumbai for Nikhil Advani's Salaam-e-Ishq. But she hopes she'd be able to be in Boston at least on the day of the surgery.

She still recalls with a shudder how her kid-brother find out about the nature of their father's illness from a newspaper report.

"We had told him that dad was ill. But we hadn't informed him of the nature of his illness. He's just thirteen, yaar! To have to know about your father is serious illness through the newspaper at that age isn't easy. I think it made my little brother grow up overnight."

Priyanka had left for Kuala Lampur to address the Global Leadership Forum with a heavy heart. Not just her dad's surgery, but a good friend has fallen ill and has been hospitalized.

"Simple Kapadia is not just my first costume designer she has also become a good friend during the making of Guddu Dhanoa's film. Now when we're shooting the film again Simple and I were really bonding.

She told me about her illness. But she said she was doing fine. The next thing I know she's in hospital. I know what a family goes through when someone falls ill. We've been through it. I wouldn't wish this one anyone."