Fashion designer Mamta Fomra and Poorvi Fomra
Madurai-based fashion designer Mamta Fomra calls her daughter Poorvi Fomra her first model. “Whatever I design, I try it on my daughter and get her feedback. She tests the fabrics, puts them in the machine and drier and gives me suggestions. She has been my biggest making my work better,” says Mamta. “Being tech-savvy, she helped me get my fb page running and take care of my online presence and is the main support behind the western clothing line I launched. She suggests me colours and designs liked by her age-group of women, young professionals.”
Poorvi Fomra, a graduate of business administration, is now working in New Zealand and has helped her mother in setting up a francise there. “We are also looking to open a store there soon,” she says. “I chip in my ideas whenever possible. My mother is my inspiration. I have never seen her tired. I admire her energy levels and am grateful to her for giving me the freedom I always wanted.”
Fashion designer Mamta Fomra and her daughter Poorvi Fomra
Mamta endorses she never forces her children and lets them be. . “I teach them to swim and let them face the tides, waves and the whales. As a mother, I feel blessed to have a daughter who understands, supports and joins hands with me.”
Restaurateurs Tilakam Rajasekharan, Subha and Vivitha Gopal
Behind the city's first Indo-Lankan restaurant Appams and Hoppers, is this combination of three generations of mothers and daughters. Septuagenarian Tilakam Rajasekharan, her daughter Subha and the 20-something granddaughter Vivitha Gopal have set up a quaint restaurant in their backyard, serving home-made Lankan food. “This place was my grandmother's backyard which she offered to my mother, who is a great cook,” says Vivitha, who quit her IT job to join her mother in the restaurant business a month ago. “The venture is a long-time dream of my mother and I wanted to be by her side running it. The food we offer here is all that we have eaten at home, cooked by my mother.”
Restaurateurs Tilakam Rajasekharan, Subha and Vivitha Gopal
Subha who has returned after living for years in Colombo is a cooking enthusiast. “I learnt the recipes from my mother Tilakam who still helps me out in the kitchen. She and I take care of the cooking, while Vivitha looks after the logistics, layout and other things.” Subha adds, “My mother Tilakam has been a great deal of strength throughout and that's what I try to be for my children.”
Young Vivitha says, “Both, my mother and grandmother, didn’t probably have as much luxury or freedom. Their lives were a different story and yet they have managed to stay headstrong all these years. That spirit is what I learn from them.” Vivitha picks her mother's chicken curry and cakes as her favourite while Subha declares mutton kheema and maida puri as her mother's special preparations.
Artists and art gallery owners Shanthi Jeyaram and Shammita Shenbagavel and Shiney Sakthi Prajoth
“We participated in a drawing competition organised by Vijay TV in 2011 in which I won the first prize, my daughter Shammi won the second and my younger daughter bagged a consolation prize”, gushesShanthi Jeyaram, the owner of Parampara art gallery in Reserve Lines.
Both daughters cite their mother as the inspiration and their knowledge in art stems from watching and observing her paint from a young age.
Artist Shanthi Jeyaram and her daughters Shammita Shenbagavel and Shiney Sakthi Prajoth
After teaching her daughters the nuances of art for almost two decades, the happy threesome now run the gallery together. They have mostly mounted shows of their works and both the girls still depend on their mother to give the finishing touches to everything. “It’s like a secret bond between the three of us. We discuss, help and push each other”, says Shammita Shenbagavel, her elder daughter. It is the sheer love of art that draws and keeps the sisters together even post-marriage. One is settled in Madurai and the other in Karaikudi but whenever their art works are ready for exhibiting, they join their mother to keep the parampara going.
Doctors and dancers Kavitha Fenn and Nalina Arunkumar
Dr. Kavita Fenn was introduced to the western influence in clothes, music and primarily dance by her daughter, Nalina Arunkumar, a medical student. “Nalina dragged me to her western dance classes. That was a decade ago when she was in school. Watching her and waiting for her class to finish, I too got interested and joined her,” she says. As mother and daughter became proficient in dance, the idea of starting their own dance school was born. Now more for the love for the art form, Youforia is run by them and the duo has choreographed and designed costumes for more than half-a-dozen dance programmes with the students who joined them in the last four years.
Kavitha and Nalina describe themselves as each other’s muse on and off the dance floor. Kavitha says
their mutual love for dance and spending quality time together not only furthered their passion and helped in developing the dance school but also cultivated a beautiful and open relationship between them. “We are more like friends and she is my biggest fan,” says Nalina of her mother.
The doctor pair feels dance does and will cement them together forever.
