New Delhi: Padma Lakshmi believes that the opportunity she has a young woman to travel the world and learn was her real education. She also advises the same to the young men and women out there wanting to make a career in the industry.
A global icon, Padma Lakshmi, began her career in modelling and went on to establish herself in the modelling industry, entertainment business and build a relevant space for her women's health campaigns as part of her civil advocacy drive, which also includes her very inclusive and socially viable docuseries 'Tasts The Nation'.
During a session titled 'Taste The Nation: Beauty, Diversity, Authenticity' on the second day of the third edition of ABP Network’s Ideas of India Summit, Emmy-nominated producer Padma Laskmi spoke at length about her docuseries 'Taste The Nation', about how she planned her life, her advise to young people in the travel and food sector, her relationship with her father and more.
Here are excerpts from Padma Lakshmi's conversation with moderator and host Veer Sanhgvi on planning her life and her advise to people wanting to make a career in the travel and food industry.
On planning her life
You know, I, people always ask me, how did you plan on your life? And the truth is, I didn't plan anything. I did the best I could with the opportunities that came to me. That is the opportunities that come to you may not be the exact ones that you have planned for your life or your career. But you never know where that's going to take you.
I think all of the things that I've done in my career path have led me to the career that I have have have somehow contributed to whom, to who I am. And to be honest, I was somebody who had college loans. You know, I had financial aid to go to college and I had very, very big loan payments that I had to make.
For me, modeling was not at first, this glamorous endeavor I was doing very low level modeling, but it allowed me to pay off my college loans. It allowed me to be independent, and it was an ends it was a means to an end. You know, I don't think I would have the career as a writer and in food today. If I hadn't had the opportunity as a young person to travel and see the world. I think that is an education in itself that I could have never had coming from the socio economic background that I did.
On young people wanting to make a career in food and travel
Whenever I meet young people who are interested in food, the first thing I say is go hit the road before you have kids before you have responsibility. Just go as soon and as often as you can, because that is really what made me as you know, the person who I am today is to see other cultures.
On never being Indian enough
Padma Lakshmi also spoke about her identity in an Indian-American setup and the challenges of belonging to the Indian diaspora. She also emphasised that America is great because of all the cultures that the immigrants tend to bring. At the Ideas of India 3.0 summit, she said, "I was always straddling between Indian culture and American culture. When I went to Madras, I was never Indian enough. When I was in America, I was also not American enough because of my skin color because of how I looked."
We are why America is great
"I think it's a lot easier in America now and I like to think that my show ‘Taste The Nation’ also has something to contribute to that. We Indians or We Chinese or we Mexicans, whoever the ethnicity is, we have contributed to the success and the world dominance of the American economy. We are why America is great, because we have taken the best of all our cultures, and brought them to bear on our work and on our lives and settling in America. And so I wanted to shift the language a little bit because people think in America that patriotism is the sole domain of a white person, and I disagree with that analysis. I think, ‘Taste The Nation’ in itself is a huge act of patriotism, or an attempted patriotism on my part, to really acknowledge all of the contributors to what makes America not only an economic powerhouse, but also a social and cultural powerhouse."