Twinkle Khanna feels reading is the only way to acquire, develop and form new ideas

Mumbai: Her debut book Mrs Funnybones: She's Just Like You and a Lot Like Me gave readers a glimpse into how she has a knack of finding humour in everyday happenings. Now out with her second book titled The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad, Twinkle Khanna says an element of truth is a must for humour to be truly funny.

Asked what it takes for her to be humorous, Twinkle told IANS here: "Humour has to have a huge nugget of truth to be funny. You cannot laugh at something unbelievable. Whenever I say something on a lighter note, I am basically unwrapping the truth from a different perspective, and that makes it funny."

Popular as 'Mrs Funnybones' courtesy her column, Twitter handle and book, Twinkle is the daughter of Hindi cinema's first superstar Rajesh Khanna and veteran actress Dimple Kapadia. She followed into her parents' footsteps to face the camera, but did not make it big. However, she used her creative juices to establish herself as an interior designer of repute.

But writing is something that seems to come naturally to her.

Her readers are expecting her new book to be as humorous as Mrs Funnybones: She's Just Like You and a Lot Like Me. But Twinkle says the book -- published by Juggernaut Books -- is quite different.

"This is not 'Mrs Funnybones 2', so don't expect that. Rather I am taking my readers to a different world through these stories. All four stories in the book are very different from one another and conveyed certain social implications in a light-hearted manner."

"Though it is a work of fiction, I met many people in real life and some of the characters stayed with me. With time, I nurtured them in my mind and finally wrote them in the book."

The book comprises four stories showing different fragments of society of different time and era -- The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad (set in 1920), Salaam, Noni Appa( late 1980s), If the weather Permits (present time) and The Sanitary Man from the Sacred Land (1990).

A fan girl of P.G. Wodehouse and the science-fiction genre, Twinkle believes that reading is the only way to acquire, develop and form new ideas. She also feels the reading culture is getting revived.

"I think there is a revival of readers. We all grew up reading books as that was a part of our culture. However, in between, people lost the interest of reading. Now they have realized what they are missing out by not reading books."

"That is why schools are referring more books for activities. It is only through reading that one can understand how people are smarter than you and what they have left behind for you," said the mother of two -- son Aarav and daughter Nitara, whom she has with husband Akshay Kumar.

The co-owner of the White Window, an interior designing store, Twinkle said it always helps to be honest to your own self.

"I think you have to be pragmatic to the approach of life and brutally honest with yourself. We all are here to do something and it is important to understand our potential first. From the age of 15, I started working and the journey is going on."

"The gratifying part of my journey is no one calls me a star child or a superstar's wife anymore. I think I have grown beyond that and have my own identity. Nevertheless, of course, my life partner influences me a lot. He is supportive and I dedicate my book to him. I bored him to death narrating my stories when the book was in the process (laugh)," she quipped.