A lot of people in the industry have been wondering why Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been working so hard lately even as she balances her time between her two sets of parents at Jalsa (the Bachchans) and La Mer (the Rais).

Fact is that Aishwarya is in a hurry to finish up all her pending assignments so that she can keep a part of the year 2010 free for family affairs, and that includes motherhood.

A source close to the couple said, “The two of them are fed up of relatives, strangers and relative strangers asking them when the stork is visiting. Secretly, they feel pressurised. It’s as if their parenthood is a public issue. Even when they are at airports waiting to board flights, over-exuberant ladies rush to them with an inquisitive look on their eager faces. Even before these fans open their mouth, Abhishek knows exactly what the question is, and he gets visibly annoyed. Aishwarya handles such over-inquisitive attention far more graciously.”

Luckily there has been absolutely no peer pressure on Abhishek or Aishwarya about parenthood from either side. Neither the Bachchans nor the Rais are the type who badger their children asking when will they start a family.

But Aishwarya already has a plan, and parenthood probably comes next year when she completes her pending assignments, and that includes a parade of topnotch films including Vipul Shah’s Action Replay, Shankar’s Robot, Mani Ratnam’s Raavana and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish for which Aishwarya starts shooting in Goa in August, followed by Abhinay Deo’s Crooked.

In addition there are filmmakers like Rohan Sippy, Vishal Bharadwaj, Rituparno Ghosh and Ashutosh Gowariker waiting patiently in the queue to sign her.

A source said, “This no doubt is the busiest phase of Aishwarya’s career. Such a flurry of assignments has never been seen before in any married actress’ life and she’d be foolish to let such opportunities slip by. Luckily, Abhishek is thoroughly supportive of her career. She wants to complete as many of these assignments as she can to before she becomes a mother. Because once she gets into that role she wouldn’t want any other distractions. That, Aishwarya is sure of.”

- Mumbaimirror.com