Angad Bedi on his Covid-19 battle: It was most difficult to make Mehr understand why I was away

Actor Angad Bedi says he has learnt a lot from his personal battle with Covid-19, and realised that one should be grateful if they are able to survive the ongoing virus crisis.

After spending over 16 days in isolation while waiting anxiously for his Covid-negative report, actor Angad Bedi is back with his family, though he admits the experience has altered his life forever.

After recovering, actor Angad Bedi has returned to Mumbai along with his wife, Neha Dhupia, and daughter, Mehr.

“It has been a challenging time. You realise the gravity of the situation when you’re in a position of what everybody is going through,” say Bedi, who shared a video on Instagram on May 22, meeting his two and a half -year-old daughter Mehr after his quarantine period got over.

Even though Bedi, his wife, Neha Dhupia and daughter, were all in Delhi, he says, “It was difficult to be away from them and be in two different places in the same city. Mehr is just two and a half, and she doesn’t understand why her father cannot come and see her. These are emotions that just break you.”

For the actor, explaining to her daughter the reason behind his absence has been the biggest challenge.

“She doesn’t get it. There were a couple of times where she would ask, ‘Papa, why are you not coming to see me?’ I’d say that I’m not feeling too well, but the minute I said that, she’d be like, ‘But I’ve also been unwell in the past, and been with you’. Such innocent questions that a child always has... it was difficult for her and very difficult for me,” Bedi, 38, confesses.

However, isolating alone gave the actor some time to introspect, which he calls a life-changing experience.

“I’ve learnt to be more giving, and to give time to your family a lot more. I hugged my dad (Bishan Singh Bedi) before I left for Mumbai. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to come and hug him and my mother again. Or when will I be able to say, ‘I love you’ to him in person again? These things change you as a person,” he shares.

And the biggest takeaway for him has been that “more than your professional life, or how much money you make,it’s about survival. If you’re surviving and breathing, you should be grateful.”

As the country slowly walks past the worst moment of the second wave of the pandemic, Bedi urges everyone to trust in the power of vaccines.

“This is a big flaw in us that we’re not believing in the vaccine. It’s a moral responsibility of every single citizen to get vaccinated. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for your parents, children, or your spouse,” says Bedi, who’s still feeling a “little weak” after battling with the virus, and is waiting for the moment when he’s eligible to take the jab himself.