First pics: Aishwarya back home

New mom Aishwarya Rai Bachchan finally left the Seven Hills Hospital on Tuesday afternoon after the birth of her daughter on November 16.

Happy and glowing, but tired as husband Abhishek told the media, Aishwarya is seen at Jalsa with Abhishek.

Ash acknowledges the media.

The proud mom and dad.

Abhi gestures towards the camera as Ash smiles back.

Coming up: Aishwarya's last public appearance before delivery

In what could possibly be her last public appearance before checking in to the Seven Hills Hospital for delivery, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan attended designer duo Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla's 25th anniversary party, along with the entire Bachchan family.

Aishwarya wore a heavily embellished black and gold Abu-Jani suit and was helped by doting hubby Abhishek on the red carpet.

Coming up: Ash lashes out at the media

All set to deliver her child in a few days, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has lashed out at "regressive remarks" surrounding her pregnancy.

The former Miss World, who is expecting her first child with husband Abhishek Bachchan, released a statement crushing most rumours surrounding her pregnancy.

She quashed rumours that she plans to undergo a C-section on 11.11.11 or that special arrangements are made for her checkups at the hospital where she will deliver. Clearly, Aishwarya is miffed with all the baseless speculation.

Coming up: Aishwarya's life in pictures

Considered the most beautiful woman in the world, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has two reasons to celebrate November; for one, she turns 38 today and, for another, she will be delivering her first child with husband Abhishek Bachchan later this month.

The blue-eyed girl of the Indian film industry, this former Miss World has, for more than a decade, given a face to India in the international entertainment industry.

And so, to celebrate the Bachchan bahu, here's her journey so far.

The beautiful Aishwarya Rai Bachchan made quite a sight for sore eyes at the Bachchans' Diwali bash last week.

Looking resplendent in pink, the Bachchan bahu was all smiles as she celebrates not only the Festival of Lights, but also her impending motherhood.

A true blue Bachchan bahu, Aishwarya fasted for Karva Chauth.

We must say, no one makes pregnancy a fashion statement like Aishwarya. While most glamour girls tend to go underground to hide their growing baby bumps, Aishwarya flaunts hers proudly.

Ever since she, along with Madhur Bhandarkar and UTV head honcho Ronnie Screwvala, announced she would play the lead in Bhandarkar's Heroine, Aishwarya hasn't stopped hitting the headlines.

First up, the film was launched with immense fanfare at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Soon after the trio returned to India, principal photography on the film began.

But then, unexpectedly, Aishwarya announced she was having a baby. To cut a long story short, Bhandarkar had no choice but to shelve the film until further notice.

Before doing so, however, he publicly called Ash out on her timing and the Rs. 6 crore loss she caused UTV.

Coming up: Her journey through Bollywood

Aishwarya was born to a Bunt family in Mangalore, on November 1, 1973.

Her father, Krishnaraj Rai, is a retired marine biologist while her mother, Vrinda Rai, is an acclaimed writer.

Ash's elder brother, Aditya Rai, is in the merchant navy.

Brought up in Mumbai, Ash studied at Arya Vidya Mandir High School, then moved to Jai Hind College and finally completed her HSC degree from Ruparel College.

While in college, she dreamt of becoming an architect.

However, destiny's favourite child quickly fell into modelling instead.

In the 1994 Miss India pageant, she took second place in a surprise defeat, narrowly losing the crown to dark horse Sushmita Sen.

But true to her indomitable spirit, Ash stuck to her guns and went on to beat 86 other contestants at the Miss World pageant in 1994.

As with most beauty pageant winners, Aishwarya decided to try luck in the movies.

Three years after the Miss World title, she debuted in the Tamil film Iruvar, a fictionalised account of the lives of Dravidian political icons MG Ramachandran and M Karunanidhi. She essayed the role of actress-politician Jayalalithaa.

Directed by Mani Ratnam, the film was a raging critical success.

She soon entered Bollywood in 1997 with Rahul Rawail's Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya.

Even though Ash won the Screen award for Most Promising Newcomer Female, her on-screen persona could not save the movie from being a box office disaster.

Ash's next was the Tamil musical Jeans.

The blockbuster, directed by Shankar, became India's official Best Foreign Language Film entry for the Oscars.

After the forgettable Aa Ab Laut Chalein, directed by Rishi Kapoor, Ash was next seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

It was on the sets of this film that the infamous Salman Khan-Aishwarya Rai romance found its genesis.

Her inclination towards dance and music led her to sign Subhash Ghai's Taal, for which she was nominated for a Filmfare Best Actress Award.

The film marked Ghai's last blockbuster.

In 2000, Aishwarya starred in Kandukondain Kandukondain a Tamil adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. It went on to become a major hit.

The same year, she starred in two movies with Shah Rukh Khan; in Josh, she played his twin sister, while in Mohabbatein she was his sweetheart. Both the films achieved blockbuster status.

She also made her first film with future husband Abhishek Bachchan, Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke, which was a tragic flop.

After the success of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam Sanjay Leela Bhansali cast Aishwarya as Paro in his magnum opus Devdas, where she was once again paired opposite Shah Rukh Khan.

The film was a huge hit and swept all the major awards; Ash won the Best Actress at the Filmfare, Star Screen and IIFA awards.

In 2003 Ash looked East with her Bengali debut in Rituparno Ghosh's Chokher Bali, based on a novel by Rabindranath Tagore.

Her blouse changing scene in the film, which implies she was topless, created quite a buzz.

After Mohabbatein and Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin, Ash once again teamed up with future father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan in Khakee.

The hit film's star cast also included Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Tusshar Kapoor.

In Raincoat, an adaptation of the short story The Gift of the Magi by O Henry, she gave one of the most commendable performances of her career.

The film was a commercial flop but a critical gem.

Gurinder Chadha gave Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice a Bollywood flavour in Bride and Prejudice.

Aishwarya played a desi Elizabeth Bennet, the novel's protagonist, adding her own charm to the role.

She then starred in The Mistress of Spices opposite Hollywood actor Dylan McDermott.

The film, directed by Chadha's husband Paul Mayeda Berges, was a miserable flop.

The late Jag Mundhra, best known for his erotic thrillers, took the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia who killed her abusive husband and made Provoked with Ash in the lead role.

After Raincoat and Chokher Bali, many consider it one of her finest performances.

In JP Dutta's remake of Umrao Jaan, Ash was once again paired with her future husband, Abhishek Bachchan.

However, even their sizzling chemistry could not recreate the magic of Muzaffar Ali's 1981 version.

Aishwarya, who played the role originally essayed by Rekha, looked overwhelming beautiful.

Shedding not only her demure, girl-next-door, perpetually-in-love image, but her clothes, as well, Aishwarya reinvented herself with Dhoom 2.

The action sequel to Dhoom paired her opposite Hrithik Roshan and also marked her first proper on-screen kiss (the first was with her ex-beau Vivek Oberoi in Kyun? Ho Gaya Na!.

Ash shed all the extra pounds and bounced back with a body to die for, sharing a crackling chemistry with Hrithik that remains one of the highlights of the film.

Her next film, once again opposite Abhishek Bachchan, marked a turning point in her life.

At the premiere of Guru in Canada, Abhishek popped the question to her, which she accepted. Her father-in-law, Amitabh Bachchan, took to his blog to announce the happy occasion, creating a media furore like no other.

Guru, directed by Mani Ratnam, turned out to be a phenomenal success at the box office.

After looking East with Chokher Bali, Ash looked Far West; starring in her first full-fledged Hollywood film, that, too, opposite heavyweights like Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth, she added one more feather to her cap.

Despite Aishwarya's presence, who was touted by Hollywood as the next big thing, Doug Lefler's The Last Legion failed to make an impression and tanked without a trace.

She then returned to her Indian roots in Ashutosh Gowarikar's magnum opus, Jodhaa Akbar, where she played Jodhabai.

The period film featured her as the great Emperor Akbar's wife, the woman who affected most of his decisions.

While the movie remained in controversy for its depiction of Jodhabai and Akbar's relationship, that wasn't enough to pull it down, and the period film went on to become a huge hit. Once again, her chemistry with Hrithik had hit the mark.

Aishwarya and Abhishek's first film after marriage was Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar Raj, the sequel to his own Sarkar.

Aishwarya, along with Abhishek, played a character with subtle shades of grey. Sarkar Raj was based upon Francis Ford Coppoloa's Godfather II.

Not one to admit defeat, Aishwarya once again looked to Hollywood.

She appeared in the role of a criminology expert, Sonia Solandres, in The Pink Panther 2, opposite everybody's favourite funnyman, Steve Martin.

She was the film's main villain and also the prominent eye-candy, holding her own against the Hollywood A-listers.

Her bilingual potrayal of the reinvented role of Sita in Mani Ratnam's Raavan and Raavanan both met different fates.

Raavanan was a huge hit down South and the actress saw that as a potential ready to be tapped. Raavan, on the other hand, was one of the most reviled films of 2010.

Capitalizing on her resonance down South, she signed on Rajinikanth's Endhiran (called Robot in Hindi).

As with anything Rajinikanth, Endhiran was a blockbuster like no other, breaking records the world over.

The Tamil extravaganza, directed by Shankar, was also in the news for its breakthrough VFX and is considered the most expensive Indian film ever made, matched only by Shah Rukh Khan's RA.One.

The Mangalorean beauty was once again seen opposite Hrithik Roshan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish. She played Hrithik's Florence in Nightingale and reaped in the praise for her sensitive-but-strong portrayal.

The same year, she was seen opposite Akshay Kumar in Vipul Shah's Action Replayy, the time-travelling comedy that didn't have a future at the box office.

Prior to her pregnancy, Ash was busy preparing for Rajkumar Santoshi's Ladies and Gentleman opposite husband Abhishek.

Moreover, she had already started shooting for Madhur Bhandarkar's Heroine, where she would have played a rising actress who goes on to rule Bollywood, only to fall from grace.

The film, said to be Bhandarkar's most personal film yet, was announced with great fanfare at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

However, midway through the shoot, the news of her pregnancy broke through and Madhur had to shelve the film, deeming some scenes in the film unfit for a pregnant woman.

Apart from her colourful professional life, Aishwarya's personal life has seen a startling degree of variation.

The tales of Aishwarya's affairs are many. As a model and aspiring actress, she was dating little-known Ranjeev Mulchandani.

Their affair first came to light when Mulchandani apparently cheated on her with fellow actress, Manisha Koirala. Aishwarya, of course, didn't take it lying down and had a public, verbal catfight with Koirala.

And then began the most tumultuous phase of her life, the one that follows her like a shadow even now.

It was love at first sight for both Salman and Aishwarya when they met on the sets of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, where they were seen in a forbidden relationship.

The real life love story, however, was anything but forbidden, and Bollywood's golden couple shone bright in the spotlight. They were seen hand-in-hand at every event and were generally quite open about their relationship.

But their fairytale was to have no happy ending. After a two-year relationship, Aishwarya and Salman split acrimoniously, causing a media frenzy.

The relationship ended on a bitter note, with allegations that Salman had physically abused and verbally threatened her on numerous occasions.

A few years later, a popular newspaper published transcripts from a phone conversation between the former couple, in which proof of Salman's use of threats and abuses became apparent.

The beautiful lady next found solace in the arms of Vivek Oberoi.

After her highly publicised affair with Salman, Aishwarya was keen to keep this affair under wraps, something Vivek wasn't very aware of; he painted the town red, going blue in the face about their love.

After working with Vivek in Kyun? Ho Gaya Na!, Aishwarya quietly ended the relationship and moved on with her life. Vivek Oberoi, apparently, was left devastated.

And then, Aishwarya played her ace of hearts -- she fell in love with the Prince of Bollywood, Abhishek Bachchan.

The two had worked together in a number of films and Abhishek was keen on her from the start. However, her previous relationships had kept the gentleman's romantic overtures in check.

Aishwarya and Abhishek tied the knot on April 20, 2007 in an elaborate wedding. Bollywood, however, took umbrage to the guest list, which included only a few close friends of the Bachchan and Rai families, blissfully ignoring some of the couple's closest friends.

Case in point: even the King Khan, Shah Rukh, wasn't part of the guest list, while his best friend, Karan Johar, was.

The Bachchans' marital bliss was topped off with a Padma Shri for the pretty lady in 2009.

Apart from all her personal and professional achievements, Aishwarya is currently one of the highest paid brand ambassadors in India and abroad.

The former Miss World is the face of a number of high-end international brands where she works closely with beauties like Kate Winslet and Penelope Cruz.

On her 38th birthday, then, we wish her a rocking day and a wonderful life ahead.