"The bond between a husband and wife just gets stronger!" - Iqbal Khan

Iqbal Khan turned a year older couple of days back and even as his fans all over wished him for his birthday the actor took an off and spend the day with his family. So what did he do on his birthday? "Well, nothing special... I get one day off after working every day for almost a month so it was a well deserved one day break!" sighs the good looking actor with in his husky voice.

Back home, Iqbal has his wife Sneha and little daughter Amaara waiting for him to spend some time with them, "And whenever I get an off I do whatever they want me to do that day which is what I did on my birthday too. I like to keep them happy!"

On the show the current track of Anshuman and Paakhi (Shraddha Arya) focuses on how Paakhi comes to know about Tanya (Madhura Naik) and Anshuman and decides to distance herself from him by going back to her native place. We are sure that romance will blossom once the distances grow more and the couple stays apart but in real life it is the many years of togetherness that has bonded Iqbal and Sneha. "We have known each other for the past 10 years out of which we have been married for seven years now," says Iqbal fondly as he brushes off our query about the seven year itch!

"I think that the bond only gets stronger between a husband and wife after seven years or more and it keeps growing. I believe that if they are not meant for each other than the marriage has to fall apart in the first six months itself!" says Iqbal who says that apart from his serious philosophical thoughts he is quite a joker when he is with Sneha.

"I don't think one of us is more romantic and we both are on the same level. However, I take things lightly and am the joker. I am never normal and never talk to her seriously. These days with my hectic shooting schedule I get to spend only 1 to 1 hours with her which I try to make the best of it. Sneha is used to me cracking jokes all the time andenjoys them too." While the couple is very much in love, Iqbal says that they don't believe in giving gifts to each other but are more likely to do on the spur of the moment things together, "If it is about material things than we both don't venture into that zone at all. Earlier I used to give her surprised like wake her up in the middle of the night and take her for a long drive or plan a nice dinner too!"

But those things must have changed a bit after the arrival of their daughter. Says Iqbal, "Yes now it is different since we have Amaara around but it has given a different dimension to our relationship. With Amaara coming in our lives it is a different kind of happiness altogether."

Right from the days that he made his debut on Indian Television with the show Kaisa Yeh Pyaar Hai, Iqbal has had a huge fan following which is still growing in numbers. With the fans now getting easy access to him how does it feel? "It feels great to know so many people love me and now that they have easy access I myself try to keep in touch with them through various networks."

What is Sneha's reaction to his ever growing popularity with the female fans? "Oh, she is quite cool about it and proud too. For her it is a different kind of happiness that she feels. She knows that I have a huge female fan following and she is never jealous about the fact. In fact she keeps on reminding me to groom myself and take care of my looks and clothes; since I am someone who will set out wearing the first thing I remove from my cupboard. I am lazy and Sneha takes care of these things."

We wish the couple many more years of togetherness!

Seema Khot Mattoo