Reinventing Their World

Avantika Khan talks motherhood, love and the importance of appreciating life’s fleeting moments

- Charlene Flanagan

So, tell me, how has motherhood changed you? What has your experience been like?

Avantika: The first, and probably the most important way motherhood has changed me, would be by teaching me patience. Ask anyone who’s known me and they will tell you that patience is not one of my virtues. Honestly, I’m one of the most impatient people you’ll ever meet but in the past three and a half years, I’ve truly learned to be patient. Especially now, when kids get to this age, it’s literally a question a minute. I probably hear the word ‘mumma’ an average of 200 times a day. It’s “mumma, mumma, mumma,” at any given moment. But, on a more serious note, motherhood has given me perspective. When you’re younger, you tend to give a lot of importance to unnecessary, trivial things. Once you have a child, you don’t have the bandwidth for that anymore because a child will occupy the most prominent position in your mind. So you tend to stop sweating the little things, you start to let go of petty things and you start to realise what is actually important and of true value in life. Fame, money and celebrity are just there, but truly, it’s family, love and making sure Imara grows up to be a good human being, and experiencing everything that she wants to.

So when you decided to start a family, did you and Imran sit down and talk it out?