Padma Lakshmi Instagram – Thank you @zarnagarg for such a wonderful tribute for Amma’s 80th birthday! Zarna’s words below:
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I was honored to have tea with @padmalakshmi’s mom Vijaya Lakshmi recently and was blown away by mamma Lakshmi’s story
She came to America as a Registered Nurse and also practiced in India in the most rural, backwater parts of the country so far in the interiors that I’ve never actually met anyone who’s visited there, let alone worked there. Growing up in the plush bylanes of South Mumbai, we used to panic at the thought of going to Navi Mumbai – just outside the city!
Responsible for traditional nursing duties to be delivered without gloves, sterilization, apparatus or anything that could have made it easier, mamma Kamali went from village to village educating people about hygiene, health, birth control and more.
As a fragile 20 something, she was tasked with teaching grown Indian men in tiny towns about condoms and the importance of using them – I cannot even fathom having that conversation with those uncles today! She regaled us with stories of their reactions, how she had to gently persuade them and of course it all had to feel like it was their idea all along.
She has worked in cancer wards, maternity sections, psychiatric units and everything in between.
Without so much as flyching, she said, I was attacked, hit, abused, yelled at all the time because I was trying to make sense in a senseless world.
Like a fool, I sat there and slurped on my tea harder because I was out.of.words.
She has worked tirelessly for so many decades to better conditions in India and in America that I came out of our date feeling rejuvenated to try harder and to aim higher because if an aging mamma can fight that much, there is no excuse for my sorry upper east side ass not to do better.
Our world is what we make of it and even though no one of us can do it all, each one of us can do something that lightens the load for the next person. | Posted on 09/Sep/2024 22:00:00
