Nothing's Sacred

She believes people must treat their burdens like helium balloons and just float. Nikita Sawant meets author and columnist Twinkle Khanna, who talks about how she sees the funny in everything.

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I wait for her in the sea-facing office space at her Juhu home, and she walks in looking casually chic in a T-shirt, grey jacket and ripped jeans. I wonder how she gets anything done here, what with the gorgeous view not 10 feet away. She says she’d rather sit with her back to the sea, citing definite aquatic distraction. And I think to myself, ‘Oh great, now I’m going to be distracted’. But I soon realise that when you’re chatting with this particularly witty woman, you’ll enjoy the conversation too much to look anywhere else. Edited excerpts:

Did you think that one day you would be writing books?

I always wanted to write when I was much older, around 60. But this is something that fate brought to me 20 years earlier, and I’m grateful for it. It gave me a chance to focus on different things in life…so, instead of thinking about the lines on my face, I get to think about what lines to come up with next.

What inspired you to write this collection of short stories titled The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad?

I came across a fascinating story about Muruga (social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham), while doing research for a column on menstruation. So, I started writing about him and fictionalised his story. The other stories revolve around things that have always popped up in my columns in a non-fictional way. I have woven stories around these topics, and they are about women finding their place in the world, inventing, following their own rules, and dealing with middle age—the most important theme running through all these stories is a feeling of belonging.