Actress Kajal Aggarwal was her sunny self when we caught up with her over a Zoom call on a Thursday afternoon on the sidelines of the launch of Hindustan Unilever’s homecare brand, Nature Protect. We told her we had slipped on a dress and applied some red lipstick after many months! “Doesn’t it feel nice? I think once in a while, we should just do it. Just wear a dress for ourselves, wear some red lipstick and do up our hair,” smiled an eloquent Kajal for whom it was her “first day” at work. A candid adda followed with the just-married actress.

Congratulations! How is it going?

Hectic! The celebrations continued till yesterday because of Karva Chauth. So far so good!

Tell us about the homecare product that you just launched…

It’s a product I so resonate with. I have used the product. It has a huge range. I used them during my wedding and ensured that my guests got to use these products as well. It really helped us protect our bubble. We disinfected all surfaces that the entire wedding crew would come across. We disinfected touchpoints like switchboards, door handles… the tables where everyone was supposed to be seated on. I used these products through the lockdown and found really helpful, especially the vegetable and the fruit cleanser and the spray when deliveries came in. We were all living on deliveries.

The pandemic has really upped the anxiety levels as far as sanitisation goes. Are you paranoid or calm?

I am not a paranoid human being and normally calm about these things. I am not such a phobic, but this pandemic has really riled me up because we lost people we knew. It was really upsetting and changed perspectives for a lot of us. I just felt a small little virus could create so much havoc and mess up people’s lives. It was a very difficult thing to acclimatise to and I don’t think I still have acclimatised to it and hence I even wrote that letter (on Instagram). We can’t forget that this is the new normal and this is how life is going to be for a while. At the same time I feel people are being so normal about things right now. They have forgotten Covid even exists. May be people are so fed up of sitting at home. While life is coming back to normal slowly and steadily, taking care of ourselves and our loved ones is entirely upon us.

Did you get into a particular routine during the lockdown?

I made sure I did. It’s very easy to slip into this comfort mode of doing nothing especially when your job requires you to be in front of the camera. There is no concept of working from home for us.

I would wake up at 5 every morning like I would do on a normal day. I meditated and worked out. I made my own breakfast and bed. I enrolled for courses and at one point of time, I had two courses going on. I did a course in introduction to neuroscience and quantum physics. I studied the Bhagavad Gita. Other than that, I would go for a walk in the evening wearing my mask, but for the first few months, I didn’t step out of my house even for a walk. I would walk at home and would sit by the window for fresh air. I’d catch up with people over phone calls because I am not really a tech person and I don’t enjoy this entire Zoom experience.

Then of course I would read and watch something and do grocery runs and meet my fiance for five minutes at a grocery store, both of us being masked.

I read Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime, The Woman in the Window ( A.J. Finn) and watched Modern Love and a couple of episodes of Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy. I love Tabu.

Kajal Aggarwal in an Anamika Khanna lehenga, Uploaded by @anamikakhanna.in

How have you slowly flowed back to normal life?

The wedding preparations required us to be up and about. We had so much on our plates in terms of coordination and exposure to the outside world that we did not have too much of a choice. We wanted our wedding to still feel like a wedding and followed protocols and do whatever possible... created a bubble, got people tested and quarantined people who came from out of town before getting them tested and only then join the wedding party. Of course people were wearing masks and we maintained social distancing, especially for dinner or any sort of meal. We ensured one seat was left empty, but there is always that little risk that you have to be willing to take.

Considering we had old people at our wedding... my daadi, my parents and in-laws... my aunts and uncles... so, we had to ensure that we went through that extra layer of protection, but like you said, normalcy as we know it, can’t cease to exist. So, we inched and crawled back towards behaving that it’s normal.

Did you at any point regret your decision to get married in the middle of a pandemic?

I did and at that point I thought I should have just done a court wedding. But I am glad that I did not do that because I really needed that closure and wanted to feel married. I am glad that I sat in a mandap and took the pheras because that is important to me. My husband (Gautam Kitchlu) was for just signing papers and getting married. He felt we should have done that to ensure safety, but well, upon my pressing, we had this bubble created.

You wore our very own Anamika Khanna. What do you love her?

Oh! I love Anamika herself, such a wonderful human being. Her sense of aesthetics and understated elegance... I resonate with these qualities about her work and her karigari is wonderful and she is so nonchalant about it. They are gorgeous and not in your face and I have always wanted my wedding ensemble to be like that and I have always wanted to wear Anamika for my wedding.

Are you travelling anywhere?

Well, we want to do a quick getaway before Diwali and then come back home for Diwali. We got ourselves tested.... We fly in a bubble with masks, wipes and sprays.

What do you think has changed about life forever?

I think my perspective on hygiene and self-care has become high up on the list of priorities. My perspective on travel and work-life balance, new normal.... I know the pandemic hasn’t gone down too well for most people but I feel I have taken away a lot from it. The fact that I even got married during the pandemic has been the biggest transition of my life. I feel my life has changed a lot in these past couple of months and my outlook towards a lot of things have changed. It has made me a more hyper-responsible person.