Twinkle Khanna Recalls When A ‘Foolish Relative’ Commented On Her Daughter’s Skin Colour: ‘Not As Fair As Her Brother’
After more than 20 years of marriage, son Aarav and daughter Nitara are the only children of Akshay Kumar, and Twinkle Khanna discussed the benefits of book reading for kids in her most recent column for The Times of India. She related an incident in which her daughter nearly gave up swimming because of a relative’s remark that Nitara’s skin tone was similar to her brother Aarav’s. However, a book saved the day.
‘Same Colour As Bhaiya’
Explaining how a book ‘acts as a navigational tool to guide us through this expedition called life’, Twinkle recalled, “There was a time when my little one (Nitara) wanted to discontinue her swimming lessons. A tan had become her nemesis. ‘I want to be the same colour as bhaiya (brother).’ A chance remark by a foolish relative within her earshot had not gone unnoticed. ‘She is so cute but not as fair as her brother!’”
‘Brown is darker…’
To help her daughter change her mind and not leave her hobby of swimming., she gave her Frida Kahlo’s illustrated biography.
Twinkle added, “I gave her (Nitara) Frida Kahlo’s illustrated biography. Gleaming skin of a shade not unlike hers, with eyebrows that met in the centre, a formidably talented woman as a role model. These days, she claims she doesn’t need to use as much sunblock as her brother. ‘White is a light colour, so it gets dirty fast like my T-shirt; brown is darker, so it doesn’t.’”
Akshay On Twinkle parenting
Actor Akshay Kumar recently appeared on cricket player Shikhar Dhawan’s chat show, Dhawan Karenge. He praised Twinkle in a recent interview, saying their daughter Nitara receives her intelligence from the actor-turned-author. Twinkle completed her PhD at the age of fifty.
I am an illiterate man; I have not studied much. I do manual labour, whereas she is the one with the brain.”
He added, “I go to work, and she has taken such good care of my children (son Aarav and daughter Nitara). I am surprised at how my wife looks at life even today. She is 50 now and still goes to school. She has finished her master’s and is now doing her PhD.”
