"I can't believe I'm 58, Hema

It was meant to be a quiet 58th birthday for the ageless diva on Oct 16. "I can't believe I'm 58! There's so much more I want to do and time is running out. The people who are close to me weren't here. Esha is away in Cape Town shooting. My brother is in Chennai. And Dharamji is out of the country for important work. I couldn't expect everyone to put aside their commitments just to be near me on my birthday. But yes, my younger daughter Ahana was here and she had a small get-together for me in the evening. I'm not the kind to stay awake the night before to bring in my birthday."

But if she thought she'd just have a quiet birthday Hema had another thought coming. "The phone started ringing from early morning. And even before that one of my dear friends showed up at 4 am in the morning to wish me. That was so sweet."

The entire home was strewn with bouquets. "Flowers make me very happy. And on top of that I've just returned from a pilgrimage to the chaar-dham. So the atmosphere in my house was quite fragrant."

On the night before her birthday Hema was busy with a long photo-shoot. "A magazine is doing a special on legendary beauties. For some reason they think I'm one of those legendary beauties…I've never thought myself beautiful. Never stopped to think whether I'm beautiful or not. When people say so I still get embarrassed and don't know how to react."