A page from the personal diary of Kavi Shastri I remember the time when I moved from London to India 3 years back. I had left the place where everything was easily accessible to me. At London, I had family I had friends but, in India I was completely on my own. I did not like to call my parents for money when I didn’t have any work in my hand. And there have been times where I have survived for many days with just 500 bucks in my pocket. In fact, there has been a time where I had walked all the way from Lokhandwala to Bandra just to save money. My struggle period in India taught me the value of money. Precisely, you could say that my perception towards money changed completely after that. I realised that a 10 rupee noodles meal is much better than spending 1000 bucks at a five star hotel. I also remember the time when I almost gave up. I had joined Anupam Kher’s acting school. I enjoyed myself but yet, realised that India wasn’t the place for me. And that is when I went back to London. Few days later, I got a call from my agent that renowned director Imtiaz Ali wanted to see me. I came back to India to meet him and bagged a role in Love Aaj Kal. After that my struggle to fit into the industry began. Be it standing outside the studios or meeting people, I have done it all. One fine day, one of my close friends suggested that I audition for YRF’s Rishta.com. It was for a small role in the serial. I was absolutely laid back during the auditions, where I was offered the role of Rohan in the show. I got selected and auditioned with everyone you’d know in Mumbai for Eesha’s role (now played by Shruti Seth). Actually, I was the first one to be finalised for the project. After 8-9 months we finally found the right people and here we are. In fact, the funniest part is I did not even know that I was playing the lead role in the show! I have worked really hard for Rishta… Being from London, I had to work on my Hindi a lot. I took Hindi lessons for several months and finally I was ready after a one-month Hindi training with Vikas Kumar. Currently, I am busy making people laugh with my stand-up comedy. I can say that comedy is the hardest piece of work. I shall wrap up saying that ‘money can’t buy laughter’!