Backstage, at the launch of a new range of products by Swedish cosmetics major Oriflame, the air is hot and models scurry about in preparation for the highlight of the evening — a fashion show showcasing the range.
In a quieter corner a marked door reads ‘Gauhar Khan’. Inside, the showstopper for the evening, decked in a Dolly J ensemble, sits down to talk about how she keeps in enviable shape.
Tied intrinsically to fitness is food and in Gauhar’s case nothing is off the table, she underlines. “I love everything that nature has to offer and I’m not finicky at all; I don’t deprive myself of anything good. If I need to have pastries once in a while I enjoy them.” She manages this approach because her body “reacts to happiness” and working out gives her results that she seeks. It also allows her to freely eat whatever she desires.
Gauhar says she relies on working out in the gym to keep fit and considers herself a “weight training fanatic”. She does not consider herself a “yoga or meditation kind of person” and instead loves to “sweat it out in the gym”. She follows this regimen everyday as long as there isn’t some thing else tying her up.
Peace of mind, Gauhar believes, is essentially linked to the natural surroundings that one is surrounded by. She says, “It depends on how much nature I see around myself. When I am in Delhi I feel beautiful because there is a lot of greenery here, it’s well maintained and that makes me feel beautiful.”
She hopes and prays that “we live in a much cleaner environment which sadly we’re not,” and feels “angry about educated people driving about and chucking things out of their cars.”
Beauty and well being, she opines, are a reflection of the inner self. “You need to look beautiful at whatever rank you see yourself but if you don’t feel beautiful inside it doesn’t show on your face.”
Between beauty and fitness, Gauhar believes that fitness is more important and “you need to be healthy whatever size you are. If you are a heavy weight lifter, even being a size 12 is not a bad thing.” “I am US size 4,” she reveals, “and I am absolutely fine with that. I love the way I feel.”
