Not only the Bachchan family, the entire nation has been awaiting this moment. The Bachchans are on cloud nine as they are blessed with a baby girl. Big B tweets: "I AM DADA to the cutest baby girl, A dada ji ... Ecstatic."

On November 16, at around 9.53 am, actor Abhishek Bachchan messaged a friend that his wife Aishwarya had given birth. A few seconds later, he announced on Twitter: “IT’S A GIRL!!!!!!”. Minutes later, his ‘ecstatic’ pa, Amitabh, reacted with, “I am a DADA to the cutest baby girl!

Aishwarya, 38, was admitted to Mumbai’s Seven Hills Hospital on Monday night, and reportedly went into labour in the early hours of Wednesday. A couple of weeks ago, when we’d met Abhishek at his office in Janak, Juhu, he had admitted that he’d love to have a baby girl, because daughters are closer to their fathers. “And if it’s a baby girl I’d hope she looks like Aishwarya.”

But, at the time, neither he nor Ash had any clue about the gender of the baby. “As a couple, Aishwarya and I had decided we don’t want to know the sex of our baby. We’d like it to be a surprise. It’s against the law anyway. And boy or girl, we’re blessed either way. I just want the baby to be healthy and hearty and my wife to be fine,” he said.

Abhishek joked that he doesn’t have any memories of when he was born but remembers growing up in a big joint family and imbibing values from all four of his grandparents. “I’m glad my child too will get the opportunity to interact with and learn from both sets of grandparents, who are very active,” he asserted.

He clearly recalled every detail of his niece and nephew’s birth. “They are almost like my own kids. I was 21 when my sister (Shweta Nanda) had Navya Naveli and it was overwhelming. The first few days I didn’t get too close because I was really scared but I’ve learnt a lot since Agasthya and Aishwarya’s brother Aditya’s son came along last year. Aishwarya’s good with children too,” he smiled.

The actor, who’s been away from home quite a bit this year on outdoor shoots, is now back in Mumbai and looking forward to spending every waking minute with his child unless work calls him away. “I’ll definitely be a hands-on daddy,” he promises, unperturbed by horror stories of wailing infants and sleepless nights. “My baby won’t cry and if she doesn’t sleep, it’s cool, I’ll play with her all night. As actors, both Aishwarya and I are accustomed to getting along with three-four hours of sleep. We’ll stay up with her.”

While news channels stuck to the Broadcast Editors association’s advisory on restrained coverage around the birth and chose to remain silent, Twitter was abuzz with messages. Amitabh Bachchan reportedly received 2,843 messages congratulating him on his Twitter account within 30 minutes of his announcement. Tags such as ‘Baby B’, ‘Girl’ and ‘Dada’ were also trending.

- HT