Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Your Instagram @Mandanakarimi with 1million followers, is no less an internet sensation, tips on how to keep it real on social media
Ms. Mandana Karimi:
Thank you for the compliment! I manage my Instagram. I keep updating my fans about what I do and what I eat and again to be honest it has to do with the way you are or it could get really toxic if you fake or if you’re not going to say what you feel but I enjoy it a lot because you can tell a lot of stories through the videos and pictures that’s what I love about Instagram.
There are days when I’m not feeling well or I’m not in my highest motivated mood you can also see that on my Instagram because I think that’s what is the beauty of social media is to stay true to yourself and I try not to misguide my audience, my fans because it could be a very dark place because I go through a lot of accounts and you see it’s all beautiful, it’s all filtered they say the right things, they do the right things but at the end of it, we are all humans and we all have flaws and our flaws are beautiful.
So I try to keep it real like if I’m feeling something or if I have a opinion on something or if I feel what’s happening to the society or what’s happening around me is not right, I do definitely talk about it on my social media and there have been days when I was feeling really low for what I was going through in my personal life and in my work life, I’ve spoken about it and I think that is the reason why a lot of people are connecting with me.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Your recent venture into the kitchen line, is something that is very different and interesting, tell us how did you come up with this idea and put it through action?
Ms. Mandana Karimi:
Mandana’s kitchen came to life when I didn’t know where my career’s going and I had this really tough time where I wasn’t getting work, I wasn’t very happy, I didn’t know want to do and I always wanted to own a cafe or a restaurant so I tried my hand and I’m from Iran so I thought I know my food, I can cook and I knew a couple of people who can help me on this venture and let’s just try it.
Fortunately, it was a great success and at the moment I’m looking for a partner to take forward the brand because we did really well, the quality was great, people were enjoying the food because in Mumbai, we don’t really have authentic Iranian place.
I found out that food is my first love, I’m a big foodie and that made a huge difference because of the person that I am the food was very authentic yet healthy and delicious and hopefully very soon I’m going to open a sit down cafe somewhere in Bandra and I’ll definitely keep you guys posted on it.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Your favourite form of exercise and your least favourite? Best exercise while you travel?
Ms. Mandana Karimi:
My favourite workout is abs, doing core exercises and doing legs. My least favourite is doing upper body because that’s my weakest and I don’t have a very strong back or arms or shoulders. It’s not my least interesting but on days that I’m doing arms and back and shoulders, I love seeing there results but it’s quite painful because it’s something that I’m really working hard on right now.
While I’m traveling if I have enough time I usually workout before I head to the set so if I’m staying at a hotel which has a decent gym then I will gym but if not, I do travel with my workout bands which helps me to do a little bit of legs workout and some abs so it’s basically 15-20 minutes of using my bodyweight, it could be squats or abs or using whatever is available in the room or using the bed, using the pillows, using technically anything to just have that 15-20 minutes of sweating it out because it kind of makes me feel fresh and it makes me get ready for set.
If I have a really early morning, I usually workout after I’m back to the hotel and it could be just a simple cardio or swimming or the 20 minutes of intense workout using my body weight or going to the gym and using the weights at the gym.