Saif has really decided to take it easy while he sends letters to his producers saying, "No more work on Sundays. I'm a hundred per cent recovered now. I have been asked to give up on smoking, and even if I wasn't, I'm smart enough to know that smoking is seriously damaging to my health."

Saif dismisses the rumour that he has started smoking again as "absolute rubbish". I aint that crazy to start after I've quit? the initial three weeks is always tough for anyone who wants to quit. Once you get over that phase you're home and free. Luckily for me, I was in hospital and under medication. By the time I came out of the hospital the addiction was over," he says.

Saif suffered the usual withdrawal symptoms, like the trembling of the hands, in the hospital. "But it wasn't that bad either. The real ordeal will start now.

When I'm in a bar watching friends smoke, the urge is bound to hit me. I wouldn't call quitting smoking a sacrifice but a necessity requiring a very strong motivation to give up, which I had. Either I quit, or I fall ill again."

"Smoking adds to the chances of your falling sick. It's like adding a bottle of whiskey to fast driving. That's what my cardiologist compares smoking to," Saif says.

Saif's cardiologist is almost a divine figure in his life at the moment. "I wasn't afraid when I fell ill. I've always had a fatalistic attitude to life....never store it up, because you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. I want to enjoy the day. It might be all over tomorrow.

Anything can happen at any time. If you look around you, you're bound to be petrified by what you see and hear. I mean, some kid falls out of the window and I say, 'Thank God, mine are safe.' Every day that something awful doesn't happen to me and my family, is a blessing," he says.