Pop culture icon Padma Lakshmi won over the hearts of city folks with her easy charm and frank demeanour when she spoke not just about her new memoir ‘Love, Loss and What We Ate’but also about the need to carrying on with dissent in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s defeat
HYDERABAD:Those who have read international supermodel, TV host and author, Padma Lakshmi’s memoir, ‘Love, Loss and What We Ate’, would agree that candour might as well be her middle name. Be it her struggle with the chronic pain of endometriosis, the controversial details of her relationships with Salman Rushdie, or theendearing moments with her daughter Krishna Thea, her earthy qualities make her one of the most relatable pop culture icons ever. She discussed in detail, the stories from her life – of love and loss and what she ate.
Pickles for Padma
“My love for food was born in India, where I spent first four years of my life and many summers afterwards,” Lakshmi once said in her memoir. During the talk with the host and homegrown designer Shilpa Reddy at Taj Krishna, she harked back to a similar sentiment as she said, “There is nothing that reminds me of home faster than the smell of frying mustard seeds and curry patta.” The mistress of spices reminisced with a broad grin,“I would always climb my grandmother’s pantry for the pickle jars that they kept on top of the shelves, away from my reach”.
Body beautiful
The Top Chef host and the co-founder of Endometriosis Foundation of America will surely go down in history as one of the champions of the causes of body positivity who never shied away from talking about chronic pain, dealing with it and coming to terms with one’s body beautifully. During the conversation, she touched upon this subject to drive home the point that straightjacket beauty norms need to be quashed. “The female body is one of the most beautiful creations of nature,” she affirmed during her chat with Reddy and we agree. The diva has always flaunted her seven-inch long beautiful scar on her arm which is a result of a car crash that she suffered as an adolescent. Also, a vocal spokesperson against colour prejudice, she states, “What’s wonderful about Indian race is the diversity – there are people with fair skin and straight hair and there are those with gorgeous dark skin and with Afro. When I took the plane from Mumbai to come to Hyderabad, I was happy to see voluptuous women on billboards wearing glittering sarees – they looked beautiful.” She added firmly albeit humorously that “I want the darn fairness creams to go out of business.” Later, in a brief tête-à-tête with us, when we asked her what women should do to combat the changes in the body and embrace themselves, she said, “Start looking after yourself, eating healthy, going to the gym, working out, improving the appearance of your skin” and
assured the rest will fall into place.
Home and the world
Although the Indian-born American said she missed out on the “shared history or understanding of Indian popular culture unlike those who have grown up in this country”, she admits she feels at home here. “I had no idea who the Bollywood stars are and am terrible at Antakshari. But now I realise that I am a combination of both the worlds,” said Lakshmi. She seemed quite at home in Hyderabad even as she chatted about some of the most private bits of her life and in turn making those listening to her feel at home as well. She interacted with those who came up to her to talk about how much they loved and related to her writing.
For sisterhood’s sake
The staunch feminist that Lakshmi is, this vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton, talked about the need to carrying on with dissent in the wake of her defeat. She said she wants her daughter, Krishna Thea Lakshmi-Dell to inculcate the values of feminism in the most natural way possible. For her the personal is political, that’s why she mentioned taking her daughter to protest marches seem natural as well. Speaking about the episode of child sexual abuse she faced, Lakshmi mentioned that she felt the need to talk about it as “A large number of young girls and boys suffer from it,” and added that the process of writing her memoir wasn’t always an easy one: “There were days when I would sit in my office, write and feel the tears streaming down my face.”
The talk was hosted at Taj Krishna in association with US Consulate Hyderabad, FICCI FLO and HarperCollins India