By Arundhuti Banerjee
Mumbai, Dec 2 (IANS) Actress-turned-producer and host Tara Sharma Saluja believes that people's choices make their life, and that gender equality is about having the choice of being a caregiver or a working mother.
Tara, a mother of two children -- Zen and Kai, manages to balance her personal and professional lives well.
Talking about the freedom of choice, Tara, whose new season of "The Tara Sharma Show" will soon go on air, told IANS here: "Gender equality is about having the choice of being a caregiver or a working mom because our choice makes our life."
"Moreover, the society should not be judgmental about one's choice. So, one does not have to prove how good working mom she is by staying in office for 12 hours and taking care of her kids. You are equally cool as a mom even if you are staying home and nurturing your baby."
She said that it was her choice to be involved in every step of her children's upbringing.
"However, I could not just sit at home. So, I conceptualised my show about parenting where I can balance my profession and parenting at the same time."
Though there is celebration of working mothers and that is considered a sign of gender equality, according to Tara, it is only the perspective that has changed.
Sharing an example, she said: "When I was interviewing actress Kajol, she told me how Tanuja ji (veteran actress and Kajol's mother) would go to work and she would stay with her grandmother. That is when I realised that the acknowledgement of a working mother has grown over period of time and our society celebrates it largely."
It is interesting to observe how in five years, the show, which will air on Star World and Star World HD, has transformed from just a parenting and child care to broaden its horizon to parental issues, social changes and conversations on unexplored topics between parents and their children.
Explaining the reason behind such changes, Tara said: "Here, I would like to refer to my father, writer and theatre personality Pratap Sharma who always told me how reinventing yourself is important. When I started the show, my kids were babies.
"They are growing up and developing their individual mind, and so, as a parent I am also growing. Therefore, many topics crossed my mind that I think are very important to discuss as a parent regarding family issues, child sexual abuse, identifying kids' talent and encouraging them to follow their passion.
"So, the change that you can see in my show is a journey of continuation that we are taking to the next level."
Tara started the show by inviting celebrity mothers like Kajol, Konkona Sen Sharma and Juhi Chawla. In later seasons, based on the topic of discussion, celebrities like Virat Kohli, Soha Ali Khan, John Abraham, Farah Khan, Prince Manvendra, Emraan Hashmi, Sonam Kapoor, Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh graced her show.
Many actresses are celebrating motherhood. For instance, actress Kareena Kapoor Khan recently walked on the ramp flaunting her baby bump. Even former Miss Universe and now an actress Sushmita Sen has been vocal about being a single mother.
According to Tara, actresses are reinventing themselves with motherhood.
"For instance, Konkona after being a successful actress and mother, has now become a filmmaker. Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan set a desirability on screen and is balancing both motherhood and stardom nicely," she shared.
(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)
