Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
By the time I was in my teens, I was reading science fiction. I had this maternal uncle who had cartons of books. It's important to read because you have to fill your head with words.
Chiki Sarkar edited 'Mrs Funnybones,' and she is a ruthless but kind editor to work with. The only lesson I learnt during this process was to say, 'Yes, Prime Minister,' and re-write.
I'm just a normal girl. People have these preconceived notions about what movie stars are about and how we've grown up. My mother is pretty regular and raised us just like anyone else.
I am living in the world that I always dreamed of. I am still not living in a world where you can teleport matter from one place to another just by atoms. We haven't reached there yet.
Strangely enough, I don't mention my sister too much in my columns because she nags me and says, 'Don't make me look foolish. Don't write nonsense about me. Don't make jokes about me.'
For all the oddballs and misfits out there, eventually, if you just follow your path, you will reach somewhere no one else has. You are uniquely meant to do something that only you can do.
Eat carbohydrates: All these protein diets may help you twirl prettily in a size-2 dress, but if you want your mind to take a few marvelous leaps, then you have to give it the food it needs.
There are 146 countries above us where the men have longer lifespans, and the biggest blow is that even with four wives who don't fast for them, the Arab men outlive our good old Indian dudes.
I pretend that I was never in the movies. The only job I had before was selling prawns door to door. That's what I tell myself. My kids have never seen my films. I'm too embarrassed to show them.
Walk, run, cycle - When you live inside your head for such long periods of time, you have to open the windows, air it out a bit, let sunlight stream into all the dark and dusty corners of your mind.
I think till I reached my mid-30s, I just rebelled and rebelled. But eventually, the one thing I did pick up from mom was paying attention to my hair. We all put eggs, oil, dahi, even beer in our hair.
I actually believe we are the superior gender. Why are we superior? Statistically, we outlive men by a good 10 years. No one should underestimate the power of nagging - it's on par with nuclear weapons.
I grew up in a bustling household of women with my mom, granny, and aunts. Seeing all these strong women taking charge of their lives and living it to the fullest was a great inspiration while growing up.
My husband and my son are both such positive-thinking optimists. Together, they've succeeded in making me a bit like them. I am looking at the brighter side of life and enjoying this phase of my life the most.
I have readers everywhere: from a radiologist who decides to compliment me on my writing while inserting a probe to check my ovaries to 80-year-olds who send me emails. And, of course, women my age everywhere.
My father believed in astrology. His astrologer had predicted that his daughter would become a writer someday. My father would nag me, but I didn't write a word till he passed away. I wish he could see me now.
I start my day with a hot water and lemon routine. I meditate. And I take my problems lightly, like my mother always said: treat them like helium balloons and let them go. I devour a lot of books to feed my mind.
Read everything you can get your hands on: Programme your mind to read all the time and everywhere - even in the bathroom; skim through the lines printed on the back of shampoo bottles and sanitary napkin packets.
Once, I went to the premiere of a film, and the producer asked me if I liked it. I said it's crap. But I don't say that anymore. Now I say I have to think about it. If you ever hear me say that, you know the answer!
What is feminism? We are just asking for equal opportunities, nothing beyond that. It doesn't mean that you cannot be pretty or you cannot cook or you can't do a whole lot of things. Feminism's got a bad rap; that's it.
I am not a performing seal. In your writing, you are tapping into the part that is 'the best' in you. But what you are also filters through in your writing your prejudices, your bitterness. I am not a pretentious person.
I love Twitter. Here, I get pieces of information quickly, and I also get myriad viewpoints rather than a one-sided view from a particular newspaper. Here, I have got a topic and 11 viewpoints, and I can judge for myself.
People feel feminists are aggressive, men-hating women with a little moustache. I think it's got a bad reputation because when feminism came into being, we were facing so much opposition that we had to be strident and aggressive.
I learnt how to make candles when I was a kid. My mom used to make them. Then, when I broke my leg once and couldn't really move around, I started playing around with it... putting the scent inside and dried flowers, and that's it.
I just became less rebellious with clothes, and today, I can slip into appropriate attire according to what the occasion requires, but off the red carpet, I am not that particular about what I wear, and comfort is my main priority.
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.
I've had my nose in a book my whole life. I never thought it would be useful, but it is now. What's really nice is that I don't have a photographic memory, so words get blurred, thoughts get mixed up, and they come out as something new.
Now that I look back, all the things that I was teased about, became game changers and my strengths. That's what we have to learn as mothers. We push our children so much to be perfect, but it's their imperfections that make them unique.
I was doing some research on menstruation for a column. I read about Arunachalam Muruganantham's life and work, and his story gripped me, and that is when I sat down, wrote the first few pages, and sent them off to my editor to have a look.
I seem to be known as much by the moniker 'Mrs Funnybones' as my own name these days. The book was about how a modern woman looks at India and how India looks right back at her. I am glad that India seems to be looking back at me with a grin.
Some people are diplomatic, some people are outspoken, but the next generation is very clear. People are speaking their mind out. People are worried about other things besides their own careers. It's not accurate to say that they don't speak out.
'Mrs Funnybones' is based and structured around my columns, and it's about how a modern woman looks at India and how India looks right back at her. Since I have a weakness for illustrations, there are also a few funny illustrations in there as well.
When your name is Twinkle, you are a bookworm, and a fat child, then you have to be ready to be made fun of. As a child, I used my fists a lot, but then the tongue seemed like a better option. So I started using words as a sword to jab fun at myself.
I'm a different person who's not my father or my mother. I want to be treated differently from them. I am myself, Twinkle Khanna. I am proud of being the daughter of such illustrious parents, but I would not like to be compared with them time and again.
Sometimes kids want a hamburger, but I'll fill it up with a quinoa tikki. We eat makhana instead of popcorn; we even take it to the movie theater! I also mash up a lot of vegetables and put it in the aata, so they don't realise they are eating vegetables.
I don't think I have a sense of fashion. But I do have an aesthetic, which I feel is an offshoot of me working in the design industry. For example, if I am mixing and matching prints on my sofas and cushion covers, I tend to do that with my wardrobe as well.
'If The Weather Permits' was closer to my heart because it was a woman closer to my age, with a contemporary background like mine. I felt for that character. I've seen so many women like that - smart women who are a wreck when it comes to their emotional lives.
I like to see the world from different levels. Even when I'm making a candle or designing a piece, I like to sit on the floor to polish or make it from scratch. I haven't seen really tough times, but my husband has come up the hard way. He has even seen poverty.
The thing about India is that even if the economic backgrounds are different, the cultural background is the same. Somebody who is working as a tailor will also tie a black thread around his kid's wrist; so will somebody in Bollywood. That's the fun of being Indian.
To me, it felt that if I give up my name, I am also sending a message to my children, saying my name was not important enough as your father's; I am not as important as your father. That is a message we are passing down generation after generation without realising.
I had a multicultural exposure; that's why I don't believe in a particular religion. I have respect for most because I grew up surrounded by so many. I don't judge people by that, and I feel extremely offended when people categorise based on race, religion, or gender.
Sometimes I am glad I am not a philosopher - how would I ever complete a single chain of thought when someone is constantly asking me to do something? I don't think Plato would have been able to write his dialogues if he had a wife who kept bugging him to pass the pita bread.
Standing in front of our hallway mirror, I am practising a few poses - one leg artfully bent, the opposite shoulder up - when the man of the house strides in and decides to share: a) I look like I have dislocated my shoulder and b) Has anyone ever told me I strongly resemble Tom Cruise?
I remember joining a boarding school in the sixth grade. I was lazy, complacent, and fat. Suddenly, I realised that I had to fend for myself. That's when I discovered this drive within myself. For the first time, I ranked first in class, which was a miracle in itself. However, it didn't matter to my family.
Naming me 'Twinkle' was a foolproof way of making sure that I would get teased throughout my life, have immigration officers at various airports stare at my passport and shake with hysterical laughter, and strangers stalk me with WhatsApp messages like, 'Twinkle, Twinkle, little star, I hope you get hit by a car!'
The good part about getting older is you stop trying to prove anything to anyone, including yourself. All you are in the pursuit of is collecting experiences - beautiful, fragile little soap bubbles that you store in your heart, and every once in a while you pull one out and gaze at the delicate pictures it shows you.
I never said I'm not a feminist! I wrote one column where I was being sarcastic, and I called myself a 'wombist'. Now which sane person would say that 'wombist' is a better term than feminist? I was being sarcastic, and perhaps it was my fault in not getting the point across as clearly as I would have liked to. I don't think there's any doubt.