Life As We Know It

With an unexpected pregnancy and the subsequent birth of her baby girl Savannah, production designer Steffina Cherian, sbelieves now, more than ever, in keeping it real.

- Charlene Flanagan

NOT A GIRL, NOT YET A WOMAN

For a young college girl, conforming to the plans her conservative catholic parents had for her, was something Steffina couldn’t stomach. She was her own person and wanted to live life the way she deemed fit, something her parents could not understand. Living away from home in a boarding school is perhaps what moulded her into the self-made and independent woman she is today. “Come to think of it, the distance between me and my family, the disapproval and disconnect is what changed me as a person. I became more outgoing and lively, a quality I didn’t share with my family,” says the 24-year-old.

Steffina was more affiiated to the arts and ended up scraping through her science degree, eventually taking up a course in something she thought would serve her career goals better— Mass Media. That’s where she met her partner, Aditya, an independent filmmaker and cinematographer. Their’s was a friendship turned romance. While her parents didn’t approve of her lifestyle, they did leave her to her ways. But trouble began to surface when it came to the hours she kept, and unpleasantness started to creep in. “Midway through my final year of college, my lifestyle began upsetting everyone at home. This made me stubborn and I decided to leave. I moved in with Adi for a few days before his parents helped me find suitable accommodation,” she says.

Living on her own obviously meant having to support herself, too, and she took up a job at a call centre. This meant late nights, early mornings and sleeping in between lectures and calls. Her only solace was the incredible love and support she got, emotionally and financially, from Aditya and his parents.

WINDS OF CHANGE