Lakshmi Quotes

Everything in my family has taught me that it's safer to be a happy spinster than to try and love anybody. And, let's be real, when you look at the entire white colonialist capitalist ableist patriarchy, you don't see a whole lot that looks that great in terms of love and romance for surviving queer Black and brown femmes. Not a whole lot. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

She had sculpted the mist, the way those who have no choice do. She had willed a life for the two of us in a new land. ~ Padma Lakshmi

You don't need expensive classes and all kinds of weird equipment if you really want to be in shape. There are great ways to do it that are very economical, it just takes a time commitment, even if it means waking up a half hour a day before the rest of the household gets up because that's the only time you have. ~ Padma Lakshmi

All chefs are like Jewish mothers. They want to feed you and feed you and impress you. It's an eagerness to please. ~ Padma Lakshmi

They mate in the open, under the watch of eagles. Horses come. Fires happen. They are born like an ancient sound, and they dance and wake the dust. ~ Lakshmi Bharadwaj

Every country I would go to, even if it was just on a modeling job, I would go to their markets. If I went to Morocco for 'Elle' magazine, I would be in the spice markets during my off time and just come back with a suitcase full of stuff that I really wanted to try. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Back then, eating was also a means of beautification, since the more aloo tikki and murukku you consumed, the more likely you'd reach a voluptuousness akin to an American size ten or twelve, required for looking good in a sari. ~ Padma Lakshmi

When we emerge from our mind into body, from word into action, from love into love. ~ Lakshmi Bharadwaj

The building of a just and peaceful world order, the aim of the United Nations, is hampered not by a dearth of ideas, resources, and manpower but by the lack of will on the part of governments to take the required steps ... ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

I really like to sometimes go into food detox and eat very simply. ~ Padma Lakshmi

We're sistas. We treat each other like sistas. That's the blessin'. That's the problem. We come together cause we're both bein' fucked over by the same people. We get close. And then we fall in love with each other cause us third world diva gals are beautiful and blessed like none other. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Simply being born female in our society is to grow up being told your worth as a person is tied to how slim and attractive you are. Even for those of us lucky enough to have evolved parents, the message is still driven home by the world at large. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Hearing doctors tell you that you can't get pregnant does not extinguish the hope. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I've always thought the back is one of the most beautiful parts of a woman. I've created four versions of the front-to-back necklace which actually gives you two necklaces in one. I love the way they swing and catch the light as a woman is walking away. You almost want to pull on it and stop her! ~ Padma Lakshmi

A "matriarchal world" does not mean matrilineal or that one queen shall rule the world. It simply means "a world in which a Mother's Heart leads all social institutions, corporations, and governments." All humans-men, women, or transgender-can embody a mother's heart if they so choose. We are destined for extinction as a human race unless a mother's heart assumes leadership of the world. ~ Ananda Karunesh

It [i.e. disability justice] means we are not left behind; we are beloved, kindred, needed. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

The insidious reasons for a brown girl's self-loathing won't be surprising to any woman of color. I cannot rightly compare my own struggles to those of another minority, as each ethnicity comes with its own baggage and the South Asian experience is just one variation on the experience of dark-skinned people everywhere. As parents and grandparents often do in Asian countries, my extended family urged me to avoid the sun, not out of fear that heatstroke would sicken me or that UV rays would lead to cancer, but more, I think, out of fear that my skin would darken to the shade of an Untouchable, a person from the lowest caste in Indian society, someone who toils in the fields. The judgments implicit in these exhortations - and what they mean about your worth - might not dawn on you while you're playing cricket in the sand. What's at stake might not dawn on you while, as a girl, you clutch fast to yourself your blonde-haired, blue-eyed doll named Helen. But all along, the message that lighter skin is equivalent to a more attractive, worthier self is getting beamed deep into your subconscious. Western ideals of beauty do not stop at ocean shores. They pervade the world and mingle with those of your own country to create mutant, unachievable standards. ~ Padma Lakshmi

experienced a bout of atheism. With adolescent self-importance, I wondered why God would allow all this to happen to a fourteen-year-old girl. When ~ Padma Lakshmi

Freedom is not for the timid. ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

We do not believe in oversupplying the market. When you are a large company, you can afford to do it. When you are a small player, your flexibility gets reduced. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

And somewhere in that sweaty brown hot box of brown gay, I found myself. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

I'm cautious about the currency situation, oil pricing and the economies of some countries not performing as we are expecting. ~ Lakshmi

It's dark because you're trying too hard," said Susila. "Dark because you want it to be light. Remember what you used to tell me when I was a little girl. 'Lightly, child, lightly. You've got to learn to do everything lightly. Think lightly, act lightly, feel lightly. Yes, feel lightly, even though you're feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.' I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig. Lightly, lightly - it was the best advice ever given me. Well, now I'm going to say the same thing to you, Lakshmi . . . Lightly, my darling, lightly. Even when it comes to dying. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self-conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Goethe or Little Nell. And, of course, no theology, no metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the Clear Light. So throw away all your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That's why you must walk so lightly. Lightly, my darling. On tiptoes; and no luggage, not even a sponge bag. Completely unencumbered. ~ Aldous Huxley

We are pleased with the very positive reception our offer has received, and are confident that progress is being made towards establishing the regulatory framework for the offer. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

I think a great classic watch is the first staple every woman should invest in. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I work out all the time! I don't just sit around and eat burgers whenever I want. Oh, if I could I probably would, but I don't. ~ Padma Lakshmi

We have experienced highly challenging global market conditions in the past quarter with significant steel price decline in all regions. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

I am a sufferer of endometriosis. I didn't want any young women to go through what I went through. I thought that people should know about it. ~ Padma Lakshmi

In truth, I am a single mother. But I don't feel alone at all in parenting my daughter. Krishna has a whole other side of her family who loves her, too. And so Krishna is parented by me, but also by her grandmother and aunts and cousins and uncles and friends. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Hard work certainly goes a long way. These days a lot of people work hard, so you have to make sure you work even harder and really dedicate yourself to what you are doing and setting out to achieve. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

And my father left me a legacy of his handwriting through letters and a notebook. In the last two years of his life, when he was sick, he filled a notebook with his thoughts about me ... There are times when I want to trade all those years that I was too busy to sit with my dad and chat with him, and trade all those years for one hug. But too late. But that's when I take out his letters and I read them, and the paper that touched his hand is in mine, and I feel connected to him. ~ Lakshmi Pratury

I've always had a fantasy to write a cookbook, because everyone wants to know what a model eats. ~ Padma Lakshmi

In the car inching its way down Fifth Avenue, toward Bergdorf Goodman and this glamorous party, I looked back on my past with a new understanding. This sickness, the "endo-whatever," had stained so much - my sense of self, my womanhood, my marriage, my ability to be present. I had effectively missed one week of each month every year of my life since I was thirteen, because of the chronic pain and hormonal fluctuations I suffered during my period. I had lain in bed, with heating pads and hot-water bottles, using acupuncture, drinking teas, taking various pain medications and suffering the collateral effects of them. I thought of all the many tests I missed in various classes throughout my education, the school dances, the jobs I knew I couldn't take as a model, because of the bleeding and bloating as well as the pain (especially the bathing suit and lingerie shoots, which paid the most). How many family occasions was I absent from? How many second or third dates did I not go on? How many times had I not been able to be there for others or for myself? How many of my reactions to stress or emotional strife had been colored through the lens of chronic pain? My sense of self was defined by this handicap. The impediment of expected pain would shackle my days and any plans I made.

I did not see my own womanhood as something positive or to be celebrated, but as a curse that I had to constantly make room for and muddle through. Like the scar on my arm, my reproductive syst ~ Padma Lakshmi

I find, that, in general, alliances based on friendship are the only things that last. Not alliances based on words and letters. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

At the end of a marriage, no one wins. There is only anger, sorrow, guilt, emptiness, and defeat. ~ Padma Lakshmi

One thing that happens when you're pregnant is that as your stomach starts to stretch. It itches! So I have to keep my belly really lubricated. Every morning, there's a buttering ceremony after I get out of the shower. It's really like basting a turkey with body butter. ~ Padma Lakshmi

A strong player, which has the sufficient critical mass, can withhold pressure better and create a more stable environment that benefits shareholders as well as employees. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

I am very confident that we will be able to convince all the stakeholders - the shareholders, the governments and the employees, that this is in their best interests. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

Every woman has a record of her body - a closet full of jeans and bras of various sizes, albums full of photographs revealing periods of weight gain and loss. ~ Padma Lakshmi

When the United Nations was born it was believed to be a positive instrument for peace. From this exalted position it became an organization in which nations would at least keep talking instead of shooting. Soon it was discovered ... that words were as deadly as any weapon, and when these words had a number of interpretations they could and did lead to conflict. ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

We've been brought up to pick one thing in life and become really good at just that. But that's never what I wanted to be. I was always interested in many things at the same time, and I wanted to try all of them at the same time, too. ~ Lakshmi Pratury

I have great empathy for all the contestants that come on 'Top Chef,' whether they go home right away or they make it to the finish line. It's a very vulnerable position they put themselves in and I feel for them. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Auguste Escoffier into what we now know as the five mother sauces of French cuisine. It's funny ~ Padma Lakshmi

I always thought that what Rajima did with those cast-off peels was a metaphor for how she dealt with her arranged marriage. She transformed those peels, with palm sugar for sweetness and tamarind for tang, into something precious. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I always think, after the second glass of wine, you should be putting something in your stomach. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I always loved my bangles, I can't remember a time when I didn't have a bangle on. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Lakshmi is a celestial being who lives in a higher plane of existence. Her mantra is "Sring." When you chant it, it brings beauty and light into your consciousness. ~ Frederick Lenz

I didn't know what the future held in store for me, but I felt hopeful. ~ Padma Lakshmi

शान्ताकारं भुजगशयनं पद्मनाभं सुरेशं
विश्वाधारं गगनसदृश्यं मेघवर्णं शुभाङ्गम्।
लक्ष्मीकान्तं कमलनयनं योगिभिर्ध्यानगम्यं
वन्दे विष्णु भवभयहरं सर्वलोकैकनाथम्।

I bow to Vishnu, Master of Universe unquestionably,
Who rests on great serpent bed, peaceful perpetually,
From His navel sprouts Lotus of Creative Power surely,
He the Supreme Lord of cosmos undeniably does be.
- 146 -
He supports the entire universe and all-pervading be,
He dark as clouds with beautiful Lakshmi form glowingly,
He the lotus-eyed, whom yogis see by meditation only,
He destroyer of `Samsar' fear – the Lord of all `loks' be.
- 147 - ~ Munindra Misra

We have no intention of shutting down plants. We have always said there will be no redundancies or lay-offs as a result of this merger. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

The danger, though - and there have been signs of this recently - is that Europe begins to demonstrate a return to more nationalist sentiment. To my mind, that would be a great mistake. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

I tend to sleep in the nude ... I'm a sensual-leaning woman. You have to use the word 'leaning' or it sounds like I'm boasting. ~ Padma Lakshmi

One can argue that in the context of history a few years do not matter. But we live in an age in which every moment counts heavily and the price of delay is human lives. ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Teddy taught me about kindness, about love that is unconditional; a sentiment not dependent on acceptance, approval, or the expectation of something in return. It was the first time I would ever feel this from a man who wasn't my grandfather. And I didn't know what to do with it at all. If only I'd embraced our differences sooner. I didn't know it then, but we had so little time left. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Once in a while we burned a wok trying to make our churan, and Jima, Bhanu, or another matriarch would banish us from the kitchen. "You should've told us," they'd say. "We would've helped you." You're not getting it, Neela and I thought. This is our party and you're not invited. To this day, the elder women of my household in Chennai still regard Neela or me with suspicion whenever we enter the kitchen to make anything other than tea. No matter that I host a cooking show or that Neela has raised two healthy daughters who clearly haven't starved or been disfigured by a kitchen accident. ~ Padma Lakshmi

From the simple stringing together of lemon garlands for the goddess Durga, to dividing the prasadam or blessed foods for the children first, I came to associate food not only with feminity, but also with purity and divinity. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I'm not tough. I'm tenacious. ~ Padma Lakshmi

To me India is a land of beauty and generosity, of traditional hospitality and the acceptance of many cultures. ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Maybe we all need to leave our children with a value legacy, and not a financial one. A value for things with a personal touch - an autographed book, a soul-searching letter. ~ Lakshmi Pratury

If I go to a match it doesn't mean I want to buy the stadium or the club. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

Memory can move very swiftly. Words do not possess the same swiftness. ~ C.S. Lakshmi

I am sure all politicians will be convinced of the merits of this deal. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

How anguished must be the ocean, to sigh in waves ~ Lakshmi Bharadwaj

Do more than:Stop self-destructing. Save each other. Not have a nervous breakdown or six by twenty five. Decolonize our minds, our hair, our hearts. Transform into the phoenixes we were all meant to be. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

I'm not of the American ilk that, you know, your lover needs to be your best friend and know you inside out. I think he should know you well enough to please you. Otherwise, what secret will there be to tell him when you're ninety? ~ Padma Lakshmi

Jail is a good experience but it has its drawbacks ... all the disadvantages of married life with none of its compensations ... ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

The great thing about living today is that there is this thing called the Interweb, and you can just look up anything. ~ Padma Lakshmi

When I think about parallels between myself and an Olympian, I believe that success in the world of business is underpinned by very similar principles of perseverance and hard work. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

Commitment is easy before a relationship requires compromise and obligation. ~ Padma Lakshmi

What Matters!! Is Grey Matter! ~ Vijaya Raje Lakshmi

To me, one quality of disability justice culture is that it is simultaneously beautiful and practical. Poetry and dance are as valuable as a blog post about access hacks - because they're equally important and interdependent. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

In southern Spain, they made me eat a bull's testicles. They were really garlicky, which I don't like. I prefer to take a bull by the horns, not by, um ... ~ Padma Lakshmi

I grew up a vegetarian. Then, because I grew up in the states, I started slowly eating meat. First it was bologna sandwiches, or pepperoni on pizza. ~ Padma Lakshmi

The best thing you can do for someone is make them a beautiful plate of food. How else can you invade someone's body without actually touching them? ~ Padma Lakshmi

we eat for our stomachs, but we hunger with our hearts. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I'm the kind of girl who thinks about what she's gonna cook for dinner when she's finishing her lunch. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I'm an immigrant kid who came to America from India when I was very young and grew up in New York City with a single mom and really was influenced by all of those immigrant cultures bumping up against each other. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Flowers die and wine gets consumed. Both are lovely. I appreciate both. Wine and roses. I actually had someone bring me a lobe of foie gras once. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Everything that smells sweet, doesn't taste sweet!! ~ Vijaya Raje Lakshmi

Cooking was something women did to nourish and nurture their families, whereas for men it was largely something they did professionally to gain money and status. ~ Padma Lakshmi

I was the first Indian model to have a career in Paris, Milan and New York. ~ Padma Lakshmi

This is a learning in the business life that first of all you need to have commitment, dedication and passion for what you are doing. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

I've been a model for 15 years, and I've been on 'Top Chef' for eight seasons, and before that I had other cooking shows, so I've learned a thing or two about how to camouflage certain areas and how to draw the eye to a preferable area of the body. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, comes of Her own accord where fools are not respected, grain is well stored up, and the husband and wife do not quarrel. ~ Chanakya

I'm looking for people who are at the cutting edge of what they do, who think out-of-the-box. Even if their work is something common today, it might have been absolutely new when they started out, so we'd like to hear of their beginnings. ~ Lakshmi Pratury

DON'T wear loud clanging bangles at work, it's disruptive and noisy and your coworkers won't appreciate it! Bangles should have a gentle wind-chimey tinkle, not the crash bang of a million pots and pans. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Me home, the weird older daughter, back in my room. Hanging out with my mother. Taking care of my mother. Bargaining for an evening out now and then. Still no driver's license. Never leaving. It would be like when I was sixteen, insisting that I was an adult, except that I wasn't, in some ways. Was I an adult? Or was I something else? Would I ever grow up? ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

The torch relay is an excellent embodiment of all that the Olympic Games have come to symbolise - a celebration of the human spirit. Personally to me, it represents striving to be the best in whatever we do, never giving up despite the odds, and a commitment to health and fitness. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

I am as omnivorous as it's possible to be. I always say there's nothing I won't eat and nothing I won't wear. ~ Padma Lakshmi

The men on the show have it easy, in part because men on TV have uniforms: There's the jacket, in black, blue, or gray. There's the shirt, the pants. I can never tell whether Tom is gaining or losing weight beneath his boxy suits. He always looks the same. Tom also has the benefit of being Tom, a decorated veteran of the restaurant kitchen. Like so many chefs, he is practiced at the taste-of-this, taste-of-that eating regimen. I'm the one who has to look like a glorified weathergirl, with formfitting dresses and all, which, don't get me wrong, I love - at least until I don't. ~ Padma Lakshmi

Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

Disability Justice allowed me to understand that me writing from my sickbed wasn't me being week or uncool or not a real writer but a time-honoured crip creative practice. And that understanding allowed me to finally write from a disabled space, for and about sick and disabled people, including myself, without feeling like I was writing about boring, private things that no one would understand. ~ Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

I have confidence that the government of Luxembourg will not make any decision that frustrates this transaction. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

"This is Lakshmi Singh." It's like a tadpole dying in muck. Take a drink. Wet your mouth. ~ Doug Stanhope

When people can see which direction the leaders are going in it becomes easier to motivate them. ~ Lakshmi Mittal

She raised her hand, bony fingers spread. "Don't worry. She is supposed to cry. Her life will never be the same. You can't give her everything."

I realized what Rajima meant. Until that moment, I had been almost exclusively providing everything Krishna could want or need. I was her sole succor and haven. But her needs were changing. She would now need sustenance from the earth, from Mother Nature, from the world, or at least Whole Foods. She would need more than what I could give her from my own body. We ~ Padma Lakshmi

I didn't wholly identify with the collective experiences of children in either place. I had one foot in each culture, but no firm footing in either of them. At ~ Padma Lakshmi

The more we sweat, the less we bleed. ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

I usually doze off between 7:30 and 9 p.m. while putting my baby to sleep. Then I suddenly wake up remembering I'm an adult with no bedtime. I spend the next four hours catching up on reading, e-mails, and other adult pursuits until I collapse for good until sunrise. ~ Padma Lakshmi

like slicing a coconut
fully expecting
its milk, the curved
inner cumulus of its belly
virginal -
for the teeth of
an anonymous sickle ~ Lakshmi Bharadwaj