The actor’s pregnancy memoir, ‘The Elephant in the Womb’, is not only full of her poems and abuses, but also discusses parental choices and abortion.
The elephant is in the womb, out of the room, and gambled through our chats. Kalki Koechlin brings her book, her trademark vibrancy and honesty, to our call. Oh, and its UK too. He played us lullabies in French.
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Koechlin is an actor, celebrity, award winner, activist, author (Vicki does a better job of it), and a mother. Another celeb turned writer? A-listers have been jumping on the book-writing bandwagon of late – Soha Ali Khan with Kunal Khemu, Karan Johar and Jugal Hansraj… Why do we need another?
Burps, loss of libido and incontinence, to begin with. It’s a book with all the warts and bumps. Koechlin, 37, kept a diary when she became pregnant. Her music, slang, poetry, longing, all made it into this memoir (in the form of personal essays and think-pieces), which featured Valeria Polianchko’s brilliant, wacky portrayal of Koechlin’s baby bump and many volumes of other knots. Concentrating, opposing the vagina and were focused on the fiery breasts. .
elephant in womb There is no medical guidance or prescription, says actor over a video call The Hindu Weekend. She calls it the ‘huge experience’ of motherhood. “I wanted everyone to know about the hard parts… and we’re not alone.”
So read this if, like me, you’re frustrated with balancing the ‘mother-instinct-myth’ on that wobbly high pedestal to which we cling to guilt. Read this because there’s a star who lets us get behind the makeup. She gets real and raw: whale body in between, postpartum recession, perineal tears, ‘awe of this new soul’ as well as “the other side… you want your life back”.
abortion and alternatives
At the risk of upsetting the fantasy, here’s a disclaimer. This book is written from a place of privilege: the words of Koechlin. Don’t expect to have the same experience, don’t expect to agree with them all. It takes these elephants out of the room: taboos, forbidden topics, hush-hush-not-polite-conversation. “I know that most young women in their 20s have had abortions and it’s not talked about. I understand the privacy, but I think you need support all around. When you have surgery, you call your family to come and pick you up. When you have a miscarriage, you come home alone. And that’s sad,” Koechlin says.
Our conversation and the book are both about what she advocates for in a broader sense: choice. personal freedom. The woman decides what her birth is – “Shouldn’t she be the decision maker when she’s risking her life to do it?” – And about how she raises her child. The actor says that he chose to follow his mother in the natural birth process (her.) maman There were three home births), but not in discipline. “I’m trying to scrutinize the good and the bad. My parents were from a generation where it was okay to slap a child. People [Hershberg] And I am Sappho. trying to find other ways to give [her 20-month-old daughter] Discipline. We believe violence leads to violence,” she says. Hershberg, his partner, an Israeli classical musician, has his own hilarious chapter in the book, which covers monkeys and dragons—but it’s a lot about how different the father’s perspective on parenting is. Or is it?
Why Sideline Parenting?
Finally, fully aware not to disappoint the hordes of his fans, we took the conversation to Bollywood. She is busy shooting again. I asked him about his identity, how he saw himself and how the film fraternity sees him now. She wants more support. “As a community, if we talk about our problems with the people we work with, we will probably be more productive in the long run,” she says. “Society sees parenting as something done in favor, while in fact it is the center of humanity, it is the future generation, the continuation of the species – and it is sidelined.” As cinema moves towards more feminist themes on screen, what about reality? Is anyone outside listening?
“One day, Sappho may look at this book and know what I did.” And Koechlin, how your “little flea, wiggly worm, yellow thing” little elephant will trumpet that day.
Published by Penguin Random House India, the book is priced at ₹399 and is available on leading e-commerce sites and book stores.
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