/> She isn't seen that often on screen any longer. But yesteryear's go-go girl Asha Parekh who turned a year older on Gandhi Jayanti October 2, has big plans for the hospital named after her, the BCG Hospital in Santa Cruz, aka the Asha Parekh Hospital.

Besieged with problems and facing a lock-out for the past eight months, the hospital which had come to a temporary standstill is on the verge of re-opening.

Recounting the deadlock experience Asha Parekh says, "It has been hell for us.

Eight months ago some people barged into the hospital and forced the staff to leave the premises, arguing that we were going to convert the hospital into a shopping mall. I tried to argue with them, saying I wasn't a mad woman to do something so insane and insensitive to the needs of the people in and around Santa Cruz."

Throughout her career as a successful actress Asha Parekh has done immense charitable work.

"I don't even want to talk about my social work, " she brushes off the compliment. "The hospital is more than a project or a mission for me. It's my life now.

Earlier I never took interest in its day-to-day working. But the long shut-down has made me realize how important the hospital is to the common people of Santa Cruz. There're no other affordable health services for the middleclass in and around Santa Cruz.

Why are all the good hospitals in Mumbai only for the privileged patients? Is the common man's life less important? My hospital was and will be for the workingclass."

As soon the hospital re-opens Asha Parekh wants to expand and improve it drastically. "We've about 300 beds. We want to double that number and introduce several new health facilities that would make our hospital more efficient.

We're going in for severe expansion plans. I want my hospital to be the one-stop healthcare centre in and around Santa Cruz."

"I know people look at it as my hospital, and it is, " says Asha. "I've therefore decided to take keener interest in the day-to-day workings of the hospital."

Keeping in mind the growing demand on her time to get the hospital back on its feet and to then modify expand and develop the health centre, Asha Parekh has set all her other social and cinema-related work aside.

"I'm only doing the dance-based reality show Tyohar Dhamaka on 9 X. It was a prior commitment and also I've never been a judge on a reality show before. So this was a new experience for me. Also it was dance- based so I couldn't resist it. Dance was my main passion earlier. Now it's the hospital."