Padma Lakshmi Recalls Family, Food And Chennai In Throwback

NEW YORK, NY- Supermodel, television host, producer, cookbook author and actor Padma Lakshmi shared a childhood photograph from 1977, reminiscing about summers spent with her family in Chennai.

Lakshmi recalled learning to drive her grandfather’s 1969 Ambassador car years later, along with vivid memories of the Coromandel sun, mosquitoes and evenings spent outdoors after her grandmother allowed the children to play.

She posted, “Speaking of summers in Chennai – here we are in 1977 sitting on my grandfather’s 1969 Ambassador car. I would later learn to drive this thing in the 80s on the road to Mahabalipuram.”

Lakshmi also recalled that her Aunt Banu taught her cooking and multiplication tables during her childhood.

“That’s my Aunt Banu on the right, who taught me a lot about cooking and multiplication tables. She’d lock me in the room while everyone else watched Doordarshan television.”

Describing the family photograph, she added: “That’s my mom with the specs, all glamorous, straight from New York for the occasion of my grandfather’s 60th birthday puja. That’s me in the pigtails, and next to me is my cousin Aarti. Next to her is Rajni with the sharpest nails in kindergarten. And next to her is Papu.”

Recalling those Chennai summers, Lakshmi wrote: “I can feel the mosquitos and the hot Coromandel sun beating down on us in what would have still been late in the day or early evening (my grandmother did not let us out until the sun was low). Hope you enjoy this throwback photo.”

Born in India and raised in the United States, Lakshmi is the creator, host and executive producer of the docuseries ‘Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi’ and has received 16 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. (IANS)