Akshay Kumar visits his school and childhood home every month to stay grounded: ‘This feeling that I came from this place, is very important to me'

Indian Express

a day ago

Akshay Kumar's recent interaction with Ranveer Allahabadia on The Ranveer Show podcast set him off on a trip down memory lane. The Khiladi actor spoke about visiting his school and childhood home every month in an attempt to stay grounded and rooted to reality despite his fame, success and celebrity status.
'Every month, I go to the place where I used to live, Sion Koliwada, and I got to the school, and there is a church there. But this feeling that I came from this place, and a bonding with it, is very important to me,' Kumar told the host.
Ashish Pillai, counselling psychologist at MPower at Aditya Birla Trust Education, says that ehen Akshay Kumar shares that he visits his old house in Sion, his school, and a nearby church every month, he's not just revisiting locations, he's reconnecting with his emotional roots. 'While Akshay humbly admits he doesn't 'know the psychology' behind it, the answer lies in something called self-continuity,' he said.
According to him, slf-continuity is our ability to feel connected across time, to recognize that the person we were, the one sitting by a window waiting for a father to return from work, is still a part of who we are today. For someone like Akshay, who's achieved extraordinary fame and success, these visits aren't a break from life, they're a reminder of what gave it meaning in the first place.
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'This kind of practice can protect against ego inflation, the tendency for success to detach us from humility and empathy. Going back to where we started helps regulate identity, it acts like an emotional anchor in an ever-moving sea,' said Pillai, adding that Akshay's connection to his younger self-remembering waiting by the window with his sister, keeps him human. It nurtures gratitude and stabilizes the psychological highs and lows that come with public life.
From a therapeutic lens, Pillai says that this practice helps in maintaining authentic self-awareness. It reinforces gratitude, stabilizes self-esteem, and protects against the mental pitfalls of comparison or entitlement. It also reconnects people with the values and relationships that shaped their character something that fame and achievement alone can't offer.
'There's immense mental grounding in remembering the ordinary: a window you waited by as a child, the street your parents walked, the sound of your school bell. These aren't just nostalgic details they're reminders of resilience, love, and identity,' said Pillai.
In a world obsessed with chasing the next milestone, Akshay Kumar reminds us that touching base with our beginnings is not about living in the past. It's about remembering the values that shaped us, so we can move forward with clarity and compassion.