Smriti Irani: TV actor-turned politician was once a household name with her TV serial Kyun ki Saas bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. However, Smriti’s life was not easy as a child. In a recent interview with Neelesh Misra, Smriti Irani opened up about her personal and professional life. She also talked about her parents’ separation. Smriti revealed how it took her 40 years to say that her parents are separated.
She said when her parents got married, they only had Rs 150. They lived in a room above a cow shed. While Irani’s father is a Punjabi-Khatri, her mother is a Bengali-Brahmin.
On her parents’ separation
Going down memory lane, Irani said, “It took me 40 years to say that my parents got separated. In those days, we were looked down upon, but now I know how tough it was for them to figure out life with just Rs 100 in their pocket and take care of all of us. My dad used to sell books outside an Army club. I used to sit with him, and my mother sold spices going to different homes. My dad didn’t study much, while my mother graduated so those conflicts could have also been there.”
Parents had little money
She recalled how her parents had little money but survived and fought social friction.
“My father was Punjabi-Khatri and my mother is Bengali-Brahmin, so they got married against my grandparents’ will. When they got married, they only had Rs 150. Initially, they used to live in a room above a cow’s shed. I was born in the Lady Hardinge Hospital. Later they shifted to Gurgaon because it was affordable. Very few couples are able to survive the constraints of finance and social friction. My mother was told next will be a son, so she used to pull us sisters and say these are enough for me,” she said.
Shift to Delhi
Smriti shared that when she was barely 7 when her mother told her that they had to shift to Delhi and leave their home in Gurgaon.
“My last memory of that place was at the age of 7, and I have just one photograph of that house. I was wearing a white frock, a party cap and a bindi. After that, I celebrated my birthday at the age of 40. That last day in that house was in 1983, my sisters and I are sitting and eating kaali daal, and it is a filmy scene for me. My mother stopped a hand rickshaw, stacked our belongings and told us to eat quickly, we are leaving for Delhi. That day and today, I don’t eat kaali daal anymore.”
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