‘I work like a man’

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Senior advocate and tax lawyer Nalini Chidambaram turns 65 this month but Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s wife says that she has no plans of slowing down. “I love my profession and will work till I drop dead,” she laughs.

Unstoppable and pragmatic, Nalini believes that work is the elixir of life. “There can’t be anything better than work and if you enjoy your job then the elixir is even more potent. Law is such an interesting profession. It keeps me on my toes and all one needs to succeed at it is hard work and dedication. It’s a case of perspiration and not inspiration when it comes to doing what I do,” she explains.
Nalini, who lives with her son Karti, a rising politician, his wife Srinidhi and their 10-year-old daughter, Aditi, calls herself the “third man of the house”, with the Home Minister manning the nation’s affairs in New Delhi. “I have no family constraints to hold me back. I work like a man, starting as early as 9 in the morning and finishing as late as 10 pm. I don’t believe that it can be this easy for every woman because managing home and work is extremely difficult. I’ve been lucky. My husband has always been busier than me and when my son was little, I took only three years off from my practice to raise him,” she says.
An ingrained belief that a woman must work, spurred Nalini all these years. “My father was a High Court judge and when all my friends were sitting at home, he insisted I take up law. And today I am the envy of all my friends,” she laughs.
While work is quite an addiction for Nalini, she confesses that so are saris. On a lighter side, she reveals, “I love buying saris. I want to go to Kashi and give up my desire for them.”
The lawyer, who has still remained friends with pals from school, enjoys Tamil poetry and listening to Hindustani and Carnatic music. However, Nalini has no time or inclination to travel. “I don’t like travelling. The minute I go abroad I’m bored. I unwind with music and teaching my grand-daughter Tamil.”
Her mother was a renowned Tamil poet and she regrets not building a love for the language in her son. “When Karti was little, I’d read to him from English newspapers and initiated him into politics. I want to do differently with Aditi. I am brushing up on my ‘Thirukural’ and reading Tamil literature to her. My mission is to mould her into a fine Tamil poet, even while she writes beautiful English poems,” she says affectionately.
Nalini doesn’t believe that her best is behind her. “There is so much more to look forward to. I can only say that life has got better than ever. I have great family support and they are the wind beneath my wings,” she says.
Celebrating her over six decades of wisdom and wit, she says with a glint in her eyes, “I love my birthday celebrations, because my little granddaughter cuts my cake, like she does for even our family pet’s birthday.”