Emraan Hashmi along with son unveils 'The Kiss of Life'

Trust Emraan Hashmi to be his witty best, despite the long-drawn cancer battle his six-year-old son, Ayaan, has fought. "My wife thinks I still need a shrink," joked Emraan, referring to his obsession with cancer research, after his son was diagnosed with it. The actor, who'll next be seen in the biopic, Azhar--based on cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin's life--was in the Capital to unveil the book, The Kiss Of Life: How A Superhero and My Son Defeated Cancer, co-authored by Bilal Siddiqi. The tome is about Ayaan's battle with the ailment.

Emraan was speaking at the Penguin Random House Spring Fever 2016 festival. He was joined by actor Sonali Bendre Behl, talking about parenting for the new generation. His role as a father can surely fetch him a multitude of awards. These gems from his personal parenting diary will resonate with a lot of folks.

Failing is fine
"Ayaan's taught me it's okay to fail. After he started getting chemotherapy, we started getting nightmares as parents. At a school race, he fell after two steps; he fell again after three steps, but reached the finish line. That was what was important. This was the time he had come back from Toronto after his chemotherapy. It's the participation that matters."

Doctor daddy
"I became half a doctor. I visited hundreds of oncologists. The main thing as a parent I was battling against was that no one really told me that my son will be okay after six months of chemotherapy. My wife still thinks I need a shrink. I wanted to know about the causative nature of cancer. It's partly genetic. It's causative because of a host of other factors as well. The kind of air we are breathing also makes us vulnerable. Doctors at Tata Memorial told me how their wards are filled with kids and adults. They don't know the exact cause yet. There are no beds in hospitals, but kids are pouring in. It's the food we are giving them; a major portion of the food. Sugar is extremely toxic. It leads to further metastasis if given to your child. It needs to be stopped."

Home truths
"Parenting is complex. I think more than the school, it is the home environment that is important, as ultimately, your child will come back home. Create a pleasant environment for your child. Also, my son made me a real father. When you have a crisis at home, you become a real caregiver. Looking at my son, I let go of any kind of self-pity."

Matters of faith
"I call my family a nationally integrated family. My mom is a Christian, my dad a staunch Muslim, my wife a Hindu. My grandmother converted to Islam after she married my grandfather. You might think that it gets chaotic for a kid with so many religions. This is exactly what I went through. But the true meaning of a religion is to imbibe the good from every faith. I did that after visiting the church with my mother, the mosque with my father and the temple with my wife. The way Ayaan's brain is evolving from soaking up all the best parts from all religions is a great thing. What he'll grow up to be will be fantastic, as he'll respect every religion."

Let kids be
"It's great that the education system is changing. It's not theoretical as it was in our time. My son can choose to be whatever he wants to be. He loves dance; he's learning this dance form called Paco Vera. He's learning the piano, doing kickboxing. And it's all his choice. I haven't forced anything on him. Let your kids be what they choose to be."

Ayaan, the actor
"I realised that my son is a better actor than me during the photo shoot of the book with Rohan Shrestha. He ate me alive in front of the camera and spat me out. A six-year-old usually has an attention span of eight minutes, but after 30 minutes of the photo shoot, he told me, 'Dad, is this what you do for a living, this is so boring!'. He's also got a better pout than me. A Murder 9 probably."

We'd look forward to watching that one, for sure!