Why healthy Diwali is happy Diwali

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Why healthy Diwali is happy Diwali

Diwali is a good time to ruminate On life lessons taught to wellness advocate, media personality and former beauty pageant winner Uma Ghosh by Dubai. Like hers, may your Diwali be happy - and healthy

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Published: Thu 1 Nov 2018, 11:00 PM

Last updated: Fri 9 Nov 2018, 8:32 AM

As a dreamy 25-year-old, when Uma Ghosh first landed in Dubai on December 31, 1998, along with a new year, the city welcomed Uma with its characteristic opulence. Coming from an Indian Air Force family, she had been used to moving houses every three or four years, but Dubai promised more. "I instantly felt as though I was home, and I knew that I would be living here for a long time. Only that 'long time', in my mind, was six or seven years," she says.
It's been nearly 20 years, and her love for the city has only deepened. And why not? As Dubai evolved and came into its own, so did Uma. While she saw it growing from strength to strength, it witnessed her evolution from a beauty pageant winner to a successful TV show host and producer to a wellness advocate (she is careful not to use the word 'influencer').
Setting a template is not easy, but Uma has done it repeatedly - be it in the fields of fashion, television or wellness - a reason why it's difficult to box her into neat categories today. For instance, talk about her 2005 Gladrags Mrs India win, and she says she has nearly forgotten it. "So many things have happened ever since. I was in my 30s and I remember, at that time, it was very important to me to win the pageant. There were offers back then, including movie offers. But I was determined to return, because my son was growing up and I wanted to be with my family," she now reminisces.

That moment, however, opened up a world of opportunities. Uma, who ran her own fashion label, began exploring opportunities on television to showcase fashion at a time when the platform did not have much to offer in terms of content to the South Asian expat community. However, it was only when a channel recommended that she add lifestyle on the roster as well that her first show High Life Dubai (2005) was born. "I was also growing as a woman. I learned every aspect of television on the job. I had already gotten into a few aspects of wellness. That's when I came up with The Uma Show."
The show was instrumental in catapulting Uma to public imagination. But the popularity was also preceded by a brief period of criticism. "When I started the show, in the first year, the only mails I would receive were on my diction and accent. I used it as an opportunity to take a hard look at myself and thought there were just two ways of going about it - either I stop doing what I do or improvise. I chose the latter and took a course in public speaking. Today, my viewers like how I speak, but these are skills that have been acquired."
Onscreen presence aside, much of her challenge has also pertained to navigating television as a producer. "It is a very small market. Now, as an entrepreneur, if I have to look at a project, I have to factor in that the demographic is fractured. Secondly, the ratings come much later. When I started, there were only three South Asian channels; now there are so many more. So, the pie has become bigger, but the sponsorship money has remained same or may have even shrunk because people are now also investing in digital. That's why I consolidated my TV work and brought it to the digital platform. There, the reaction and feedback is instant. The digital space is growing at a phenomenal speed and it is more lucrative, while offering a global platform."
Being a public figure in the age of influencers comes with its own sets of dos and don'ts. There are events that ought to be attended and experiences that ought to be had to keep your followers engaged. It's one aspect where Uma is happy to break the template. "Right from the time I did television, my priorities were clear - if there was a party and if my son had an exam the next day, I would be with him. That hasn't changed. My world is not just my work. I love to read, travel and meet different kinds of people. Those things take time. Also, I don't understand the word 'influencer'," says Uma.
Today, she has 157,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, 50,000 followers on Instagram and 83,000 on Facebook. It's the kind of following that would catapult anyone into 'influencer' territory, but Uma is a tad wary of easy labels. "To me, Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela would be influencers because they actually influenced people to change the way they think. I am a content creator and a health and wellness coach; I am mixing those passions to empower people to live a better and healthier lives. I am also very conscious of the message that I put out to the younger generation. For instance, if you see my Instagram, I routinely put up images without any makeup. Secondly, I make it a point to tell people that it takes a number of people to make you look like this. With the younger generation, they think they can become overnight successes. For our generation, overnight success took 10 years. To me, sustainability is the key. Be it a career or a relationship, everything has to be sustainable."

During the course of our conversation, Uma mentions she is 45. For someone who has won a beauty pageant and is largely seen as a glamorous personality, is ageing a difficult process? "Not at all. I am very proud to be 45 because I have had a journey that has been amazing. I do not want to go back to my 20s or 30s. I am very happy where I am because, if I hadn't had those experiences, I wouldn't be here today," she says. "Society will have expectations from you. It's like when you grow up, you have your parents tell you what you should or should not be doing. What matters is happiness... that should be the ultimate goal. I would be lying if I said that I do not fall off that bandwagon sometimes. There are days when I invest my time at gym, doing yoga and Pilates and then I see someone going under the knife to look great. You cannot keep changing your face to look younger because age will catch up. As a wellness advocate, I do as many natural things as possible. I eat healthy, exercise, use natural masks, do face yoga and try to be positive. Of course, I want to be youthful in all aspects of my life, but I want to achieve that naturally."
As a wellness advocate, Uma is also conscious of the myths that need to be busted. Health and wellness, she says, are words that often intimidate people. "They think they have to go on crash diets, but they really don't. Small lifestyle changes can have a huge impact. It's about your relationship with yourself and your spiritual and physical practices - all that is primary food, what is on your plate is secondary. Health and wellness takes planning, much like how we plan our finances."
 
The festive season is a time when said 'plans' are put to test. Head to a Diwali party and you're sure to be fed all kinds of foods. "It's in our culture," says Uma. "We feed people to show love without realising these excesses can cause harm. We are also not empowered with the right information." The food we eat now, she says, is a lot different from what was available years ago. "It's not the same quality. Also, anything in excess is bad." In such a scenario, what constitutes as right food? "Something that nourishes us in every aspect, and doesn't simply fill our stomachs."
anamika@khaleejtimes.com


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