One Sugar Cube, Please!

Smita was restless, quietly gazing at the silent city, which otherwise bustles with people and machines, tightly clenching the file in her lap. As Jay drove the car through the empty streets, he noticed his mom’s silence and decided to break the ice; “Have you decided anything on what to answer if asked for this year’s resolution?” Smita sighed and nodded a no and the two went silent again.

They reached the radio station at 6 AM on the “Good Morning Mumbai” show, Smita was going to be interviewed today, on 1st January 2021. Slowly, people started entering and in no time, the place was full of commotion. Jay was asked to wait in the lobby and Smita was escorted to the 4th studio on 2nd floor, where she met radio jockey Mona, who hosts the show daily. Smita had seen Mona’s photos on internet, had spoken with her over phone after this meeting was arranged, but was meeting for first time in person. Mona was beaming joy and laughing and was pacing fast around the room setting up the studio while still chatting with Smita and other colleagues, and sipping through her mug. Mona, though, a timid figure, shorter than any of the people in the room but certainly had the most powerful and strong voice there. Smita had noticed at the entry itself that everyone around seemed in better shape than her.

Smita handed over the file to her which had her mock answers ready and they sat for a while chatting and discussing how the interview would go. “Would you take tea or coffee; without sugar am assuming?”, Mona offered and Smita agreed for a black-tea. Although she doesn’t like her beverage without sugar but she nodded for no sugar as she wanted to impress Mona. She was aware of the questions but was told some questions may slightly change depending on what answers she prepares and if the moment demands any new question. Mona was confident that Smita would do very well; despite the fact that this was her first such public event. They now moved to the recording area and started the show.

The title track of the show was audible in a soft volume to them and one of the recording guy thumbs up-ed with a smile while announcing the start.

Mona’s voice which was authoritative suddenly changed into a soft vibrant and joyous voice, “Good Morning Mumbai and wish you all a very happy new year and a great start of the year which we all have been longing for. We hope this year will bring warmth of love and optimism in lives of your dear ones; and most importantly good health to all.

We all know how the last year has been and although the things do not change with the new calendar, this is no reason why our outlook should not change. The long lasting tradition of making New Year’s resolution dates to as old as the Babylonian era and that tells us why resolving to self-improve is a very basic trait in humans. 

But frankly, at the end of the year, how many resolutions realize and how many just get ignored? How many resolutions you follow to the end of the year and how many get dumped in between and come back on the list in following year meeting same fate again? While some resolutions are easy or unimportant, others are crucial for better living, for better life.

Today, in our chat show we have one such personality whom you must have seen in many Page 3 periodicals and magazines, events and shows. Although coming from an effluent family and belonging to a circle which frequented such events, our guest would deliberately stay away from such shows, not with free will but due to an issue which she would narrate us today.

Mrs. Smita Jha is a celebrity interior designer and most importantly someone who struggled a lot in keeping up her resolution for many years and finally succeeded. She shed off nearly 35-40 kilos of weight and now feels comfortable and happy about sharing her story with us. She resolved to be healthy and that’s one resolution which is made by majority of the people on every 1^st Jan. I welcome Smita to our show.

Smita gave a small gentle smile and with a slight delay said, "Thank you Mona for inviting me on your show and I wish all listeners a happy 2021."

Moving ahead, Mona swiftly added, "For our listeners let me briefly introduce Smita. She is an interior and landscape designer by profession having studied in Singapore. She has remarkably worked on mansions of various Bollywood celebrities like Amit Kapoor, Sahil Khan and business tycoons like Dhiranis and Malhotras. She is the creative head behind the lavish and cozy interiors of the Grandiose Hotel in Bhopal as well as their wonderful gardens."

Mona continued, "Smita is married to script-writer Anurag Jha who has worked on various TV series and a few films. She hails from an illustrious and well-do-to privileged family. Her father was a businessman and her mother a house wife and social worker. Her grand-father was a well-known romantic novelist famous by his pen name "Amar Prem". Her sister-in-law is actress Ananya Singh who works in Hindi theaters."

Mona sipped her coffee and asked, "So Smita, your life has been very active and has been filled with many noteworthy people around you. So tell us about your life, before your fantastic transformation,"

Smita started talking, “Thank you for the introduction. Frankly speaking, my life has not really been very active,” she stuttered, then took a breath and added, “I did my studies and then have spent considerable amount of time looking for an aim in my life. Finally I started with landscaping and then interiors. I was married and then I again took a break from work and when my kids were all grownup, I started taking career serious again. I have two children, one son who is engineer and a daughter who is studying fashion. But I wasn’t very happy in the ways of my life still.”

Mona kept nodding and sipping her coffee, she indicated with her hand gestures to go on. “Mona, you mentioned how listeners might have seen me in magazines and periodicals and Page 3 events.” Mona jutted in a “Yes..!” and Smita continued, “These events were always there around my life given how my extended family and friends were always under limelight. But I would deliberately keep myself away from them because of… you know… my size and shape.” There were tinkles of ghosts of past in her eyes. She wiped them out with a crushed tissue she was clinging in her palm. “What I learn in all these years while I was away from work, was that The inner happiness or satisfaction in any walks of life was not truly present, although I was successfully working well. If you see, I have been part of these public events only in recent past.”

Smita paused and then continued calmly, “Reporters would ask for my interviews and I would smile and say no to them. Even when the Grandiose Hotel was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of the state, I skipped the event with some not so important excuse in order to avoid being publicly seen.”

Smita stopped and Mona could sense that she needed some time. But now was not the time for a break. Mona very warmly comforted her, “We all have been through ups and downs and every one of us must be reminiscing on their low-points now.” She questioned her further in order to keep going, “Was that the moment you realized that you need to buckle up?”

Smita smiled and started her narration again, “No! I always knew I was overweight. I was always on healthier side in school. Later in college days I would eat lots of junk food, munching on snacks, deep fried food, processed food; no exercise at all and had utmost careless way to look after myself.”

Mona’s eyebrows entangled and she thought to herself if Smita was involved in any substance abuse as well, being maybe a rich family’s spoiled child. But earlier in their telephonic chat, Smita had not mentioned anything such and hence to avoid any legal complications, Mona did not broach the topic.

Smita continued, “I got married and post having two kids, I gave up job and my life was all in a small warm and cozy shell. I kept gaining weight due to sedentary lifestyle. My food habits never changed and all this kept adding up making me enormous.” Smita laughed and Mona joined too since she was taking it sportingly. “But when I decided to work again, which my husband pushed for initially, I faced these new problems of being overly self conscious. I was good at my work, but not in the department of relationships, whether its personal or professional. And my work needed me to be good at that as well. I would slowly sink back to my cocoon and sulk about it.”

Smita was narrating her story very fluently and was feeling light as if some weight was getting removed from her chest with each passing sentence. She stretched her legs below the table and sunk into the chair and continued; “The turning point had to arrive now, when I was pushed very hard by my friends to attend a social event and the snaps of that event were all over the internet. I was getting tagged in it and people were for the first time seeing me. Apart from my identity as architect and a good one at that, I was being associated with my figure, my obesity. My college friends called me seeing my snaps in papers and they did not let go of this chance to pass taunts on me again. Mona, I will be very frank here, body shaming was not a surprise to me. Direct abuse or behind-the-back talks were always part of the life. But I had grown up ignoring them. But this time, the problem had escalated and I could not take it anymore. I wept in front of my daughter for the first time and that’s when my family pushed me real hard to get myself together and work on my issue.”

Mona got a hand signal from recording guy and she asked Smita to halt. “We are very glad Smita that your family was with you when you started your new journey. If I may ask, what was your weight then and now? And when did this crucial event take place?” Smita said in a very certain voice, “Yes sure! I was 120 to 130 kgs then and now I am nearly 90 kgs and still working on steadily reducing further. I had been to one of the Diwali parties in 2015 and then I resolved to take charge on 1^st January 2016.”

Mona and Smita both exchanged smiles. In her resounding voice Mona took over, “To all our listeners out there with us, let’s resolve today and never turn back until it’s achieved even if it takes as long as it has to take. And... On a very jolly note and to boost the morale of all our listeners who would be working on their health from today, we are playing an upbeat dance number here. Please speed up your treadmills and pick up pace as the music plays in your ears and we will be back with Smita soon.”

Both microphones turned off and Smita was able to hear the Bollywood dance number in a low volume. Mona patted her back and said “Great Smita! We are doing very well. We have 4 mins now and I need to fill up my mug. Do you want more tea?”

“No thanks… I am fine.” Smita replied. Mona went out and then Smita felt she could help herself with a glass of water. She stepped out and found that Mona was talking with one of her colleagues and overheard their talk where Mona said, “See ya soon… Am on air actually, just came to fill up my coffee.” The colleague questioned her; “Who is your special guest for the 1^st?”. Mona said in a dejected manner, “No one special. Just an aimless over-privileged fatso who took 5 years to control her weight! I told Ravi sir earlier that please give me good guests. It’s a 6 AM-show; I anyways get less audience and then he shortlists such people. What an awful start!”

The colleague made a pitiful face and tapped her shoulder, “Chill Babes. You will do well in the evening show and many more to come in the year.” Mona headed to refill her coffee and Smita could not understand what to do. She was shocked at the way Mona spoke and how fake her sympathies inside the studio were.

Smita was lost in her own thoughts when the show started again. Mona welcomed all the audience, the guest and continued ahead, “So Smita, what was your action plan and how did you deal with it?” Smita was furious but wanted to keep her calm. She composed herself and replied, “My action plan was to take an appointment with a nutritionist and take their guidance. I was very firm not getting liposuction and hence I wanted a non-evasive plan. The treatment, or let’s say remodeling of my life, actually started after the root cause analysis was done. And the reason for my obesity was not just bad choice of food and lifestyle, but also hypothyroidism which I was recently diagnosed with.”

Smita didn’t want to say it, but she needed to and she was looking for mildest words to use, “So, in a way, I was glad to know that I was not… an aimless over-privileged fatso. Not that I was going to sit and sob and curse everything on God. But it gave me courage, enough to overcome the bullying and face the people boldly. They could no longer body shame me and make me feel guilty of it. That inner thought gave me self-assurance that I can turn the leaf and have a refreshing life thus forward. I consider this as an important milestone in my journey, almost half battle won. The rest was following a strict regime of diet and exercise. I will not be giving any tips here as I am no professional and assessment is different for every individual. I did not want any major medication and hence we took slow steps and the result is finally here.”

With the choice of the exact words “aimless over-privileged fatso”, Mona realized that she had been overheard and felt ashamed about it. She fumbled to take the dialogue ahead. Smita noticed the silence and spoke ahead, “The situation in India is getting grave with 12-15% of people being overweight or obese. As per the estimates, in next ten years, we will be having over 27 million obese children and USA would have 17 million. The misbelief that obesity is a problem of western developed world is hindering the progress towards awareness of this ignored and overlooked disease. The repercussions and side effects on overall health are even worse and long-lasting.”

Smita felt light-hearted after speaking this, while Mona was still recovering from the surprise. But she had her job to finish and continued ahead. "Smita, moving on to our last question from my side… our listeners are eager to know what your resolution for this New Year is."

This last question was something she had not prepared for and with Jay she had spent long time finding answer to it. But with certain turn of events just now and mind-churning, she realized what she was going to do this year. "I am not very sure about this as I have realized it just now that we need to help educate people about obesity and the sensitivity to be shown towards people while helping them out. While the statistics of obesity clearly talk of how India has a serious problem, we tend to forget the crucial statistics that whatever is the percent of obese people, all 100% of these have to face abuse and body shaming." She took a long pause and Mona did not fill it up. Smita continued, "Yes, I want to improve this situation and that's could be my new resolution which may take many years but it’s a cause worth dedicating time."

Mona announced for another high beat loud song and opened phone lines for the audience to ask questions to Smita which would start in another 10 minutes. They both left the recording studio. "It’s so much fun working with you," Mona said sheepishly pretending to ignore the facts that she was caught red handed while backing bitching, "Anyways, would you like to have another black tea like before? ", she asked.

While keeping her calm and compose, Smita nodded and said, "Of course, but this time with one sugar cube, please."

Smita took the tea and chatted for few minutes with Mona, before the young boy from studio who was giving hand instructions to Mona approached them. "You were stunning, and the callers are pouring in large numbers like never before for a 6 AM show," he said and took out a folded magazine, "look this was your interview after first house décor, could you give me an autograph on it please."

Smita smiled signing the old cutout, "Here you go…!" she said and scribbled on what she recalled was a very old magazine’s page, "To Ravi, All the best for your year ahead, Smita."

After answering various phone calls from the listeners, she left the radio station with confidence and new resolution that would last with her for many upcoming years.