Shahnaz Husain, the beautician, starts with a strong sales pitch for her products and never deviates. She says she sells civilisation in a ...
Shahnaz Husain, the beautician, starts with a strong sales pitch for her products and never deviates. She says she sells civilisation in a jar, so I ask her how big the jar is. ‘Whatever I present to the Western world, it has India’s 3,000 BC civilisation in it,’ she philosophises. At least the tsarina of the jar has some sense of a historical timeline.
If Husain sells civilisation in a beauty jar, Shikha Sharma sells the Ayurvedic concept of healthy eating, cast as a constant tussle between tamasik and sattvik. The cardiologist-turned-dietician fends off my crackers with a broad, toothy smile. She tells me, for instance, that a man becomes what he eats. If I eat chicken, will I become a chicken, I wonder aloud. ‘You say you don’t believe in medicine. If a patient doesn’t take medicine, won’t he die?’ I ask. ‘When did I say medicine isn’t required?’ she replies, furrowing her brow.
Samantha Kochhar and Javed Habib are two celebrities from the beauty business who are real sports. In fact, Habib gets the game as soon as I ask him if dandruff can be traded like hair. Maybe the wig I am wearing gives me away. He is, after...
