I still am a kid I think, I don’t want to grow up. This child-woman thing is what I am. There’s a bit of yesterday in me and a bit of tomorrow.

It’s 4 a.m. – yawn time in Mumbai; 12 p.m. almost yawn time in London. I am clinging on to the receiver as though to hold and will the person on the other end, to stay there. Verve creative director, Falguni Sheth, is in her PJs with a black Verve T-shirt on, breathing down my largely still back. We have done the rounds of a movie downtown, coffee at a largely isolated five-star restaurant and flipped TV channels endlessly in a bid to stay awake for our scheduled dawn telephone interview with Aishwarya Rai, on an outdoor shoot in London for Kyun? Ho Gaya Na, some crucial sleep hours after us. The vagaries of time and a Bollywood diva have kept us awake and kicking.

Earlier, in Cannes, the Verve team, including editor publisher, Anuradha Mahindra and Falguni, observed the dazzling spectacle that Rai made at the famous film festival, in prestigious place on its jury. She shimmered, she shone and indeed outshone Hollywood’s star cast (and this had little to do with the Chopard diamonds that she was draped with, the jewellers hoping to make a breakthrough in India) notwithstanding the local paparazzi which pouted and cried about the whys, whats and wherefores. They were, in fact, questioning the very validity of her being there. At the Carlton Hotel, at the Bollywood Night party ‘she was completely mobbed. The entire party seemed to be following her’, says a young, usually-cynical invitee who however, was surprised at Aishwarya’s ‘smallness’. Come on, you guys in black and white print, don’t you know a larger-than-life diva when you see one? Even if you do not quite agree with the cut, colour and shape of her very personal wardrobe.