Sushmita Sen is on a completely different high. She is enjoying the thrills of being a mother to 14 year old Renee and five year old Alisah. CS in talks with the actress:

Art is an expression
I believe a piece of art is like a good book. A storytelling session in a book is akin to art as a means to express oneself. You may be facing painful situations in life but you can express all this by in your sketches, in singing or writing your heart out. These art forms give you hope as they allow you to imagine a world which is better than it actually is. I am a strong believer of 'what you image, you can manifest'.

Living life Queen size
I am passionate about life and the people around me. Every minute of my life is a celebration. Be it shooting a film, running office, watching my kids study and play or even dating a man, everything is important and real to me. I want to live every moment passionately because once a moment has passed by, its lost forever. I don't want to say things like 'abhi to poori zindagi baaki hai' or 'baad mein kar lungi'. I believe in living a full life.

Being a single parent
I am a hands-on mother. I love getting involved with my daughers academics, main nahi karungi toh aur kaun karega?(laughs). The fun thing about single parenting is that you have to do it all by yourself, you are not answerable to anyone. Of course I have people helping me out, my family and friends help me monitor all their activities.


My elder daughter Renee is in a weekly boarding school, she comes back on weekends. The younger one is still in kindergarten. But she's so smart that she has already started teaching her class-mates. I won't be surprised if she climbs two grades at one time. Infact, her teacher was recently joking that her job is at stake as Alisah was taking over her duties (laughs). Its wonderful to be the centre of their attention, its bliss to listen to all their chatter about what's happening in their everyday lives.

Bonding time
Besides studying, I love bonding with my daughters over fun activities. All of us have different tastes in music-Renee likes Justin Bieber, Alisah is into Peppa Pig and Barney while I am listening to Dan Bern these days. But we try to listen to each one's music in turns. Similarly, Renee loves to sing and write while the little one likes to create things from clay or draw. I am a complete besharam bathroom singer. I have not bothered to learn it but enjoy singing out of tune, nevertheless. Yet, we enjoy and encourage each others skills. I have started realizing that I have a split personality where I like doing completely contrasting things along with them. But I guess that's what keeps me young, happy and on my toes.