Masaba GUPTA rewriting RULES

Straddling the fine balance of ACCEPTING YOURSELF for what you are and NEVER GIVING UP on being the BEST VERSION of yourself, designer MASABA GUPTA knows her mind, and body...and isn’t scared anymore to show them off. An admirable (fierce!) WORK-IN-PROGRESS, she sits down with COSMO to REFLECT on all things SELF-LOVE and why ‘COURAGE’ can sometimes be highly overrated.

- Zunaili Malik

As someone who grew up being viewed as ‘different’ in school, was used to standing out because of her size and strength, and has spent the best part of her life convinced that she was “incapable of being loved by a man”, Masaba Gupta, today, could well be an institution in self-love. While accepting oneself, with all their flaws and shortcomings, can take “many, many years’’, as she’ll tell you, the 31-year-old designer has journeyed impressively far on this path. Slowly and steadily working to turn all her fears into strongpoints and “sync her mind with body”, today, not only is she proud to “have more strength than most girls” she knows, she’s also not afraid to speak her mind (“I instantly fall sick if I don’t”, she laughs). Turns out, she was never really meant to fit the mould, after all. Talking to us from rains-soaked Goa, she opens up about what loving one’s self actually stands for to her, and all that it took for her to come thus far in that endeavour...

Cosmo: What does self-love mean to you?