Kishwer Merchant: The timing of my pregnancy has been really bad, but I have to be strong

There have been moments when actor Kishwer Merchant found herself gravitating towards a dark zone during the pandemic, which forced herself to make a conscious decision to stay in her happy bubble for the health of her baby.

Merchant, who’s married to actor-singer Suyyash Rai, announced her pregnancy in March, at a time when the country was reeling with one of its worst moments of the second wave of Covid-19 infections.

“I just feel the timing has been really bad. I never imagined that my pregnancy would be like this — stuck at home and not being able to do anything, or not even being able to go out and that I’d have to be very careful about every move that I make,” admits Merchant, 40, who is due to deliver her first child in August.

She always thought that she’d be very “chilled out, travel around, and meet her friends”. But, things turned out to be quite the opposite.

Looking at the brighter side, however, she adds, “Somehow, it was also a blessing in disguise because at least Suyyash and I spent some time together. Matlab woh nahi toh yeh hi sahi.”

Reflecting on her Covid pregnancy experience, and the time to come, the actor says she has got to be very strong. “I also want to tell all the women who’re expecting that try and do different things, stay happy and positive even when so much is going on. Just keep your mind occupied with other stuff, which is very difficult right now… It’s very dangerous to get into the negative zone, so just stay away,” she suggests.

For Merchant, she didn’t understand when her well-wishers asked her to stay away from reading news just when she was starting her pregnancy journey.

“I was like how can you refrain from all this? But then, I soon understood that I had to consciously make an effort to stay away from it. The journey is now, at the end, literally. It’s going to be a different world altogether,” she exclaims in excitement.