Masaba Gupta is about to take on her most stylish role yet – motherhood. As she awaits the arrival of her mini-me, the actress-designer dishes out on her pregnancy journey, her recent baby shower, and embracing the unknown. “I am equally excited and nervous. I am heading into something that's a little bit unpredictable and at the same time very exciting. But I am prepared for the unpredictable,” she tells us. Excerpts as followed...

Talking about her current headspace, Masaba shares, “I have absorbed the massive change that's going to come in my daily life. It took me about two-three months to absorb that. I've never felt more organized.”

The baby is expected next month in October. The 34-year-old admits her routine is “pretty similar to what it was before” she got pregnant. She starts her day with a prayer or a meditation, followed by workout or a yoga class.

“I am spending a lot more time with my mother (Neena Gupta, actress) and my husband (Satyadeep Misra). I'm spending a lot more time on my own, which is amazing. I'm suddenly in this mode of managing the cupboards and the furniture. I'm just preparing the space physically for what's to come," Masaba shares, adding, “I always wanted to be active during my pregnancy and so, asked my doctors to tell me what I can and cannot do."

Ask Masaba if she feels the pressure to be a perfect parent in the future and she replies, “Not at all. I don’t know what kind of parent I will be, but the one thing that I’m clear about is that I will not take advice from 20 people. I ask people to back off when they give me unsolicited advice because I don’t need it. Of course, there will be a support group of people from different walks of life who I look up to. I’m a big fan of how kids were raised in the past.”

She adds, “I intend to be a hands-on parent like my mother because she did a lot by herself. I will be perfect in some areas; I will be imperfect in some and I will be learning every day. Babies are super resilient. I don’t want to put any pressure even on my mother and ask her to be around the baby because she has her own life.”

Talking about her husband Satyadeep’s take on life, she says, “Sattu comes from another planet (laughs). He has a very different take on life. He was also raised differently because his parents are civil servants, and they travelled a lot. What we have in common is that we both believe that we have to learn how to wing it in the best and worst of circumstances.”

Masaba’s mother Neena Gupta is often seen as the quintessential modern mother. Ask her about the tips that she’s got from her mum and she replies, “We were just talking about it the other day that there is no photograph or documentation of her pregnancy at all on the internet. She had to hide her pregnancy. She was telling me how she (even) did a dance number in her eighth or ninth month. I asked her if she was nervous, as she had to hide the whole pregnancy. She said, ‘I didn’t have the money to give you protein. I didn't have the money to be on any diet or nutrition plan. But I was very happy to have a child.’ The only thing that she told me is that, ‘A child can be born and be raised very well and become anything that you imagine or aspire the child to be from a footpath and from a mansion’. So that’s my manual. She always reminds me that children are born on the footpath in this country and they turn out okay, so I should make the most of the resources I have got and not have this expectation that my child would turn out to be greater."

Masaba’s decision – unlike her mum’s - to be out in the public eye, rocking the bump, was not preplanned. “I don't think I planned too much. I was just so happy to be pregnant and so happy to be a healthy pregnant person. For the first time I was not at war with my body. I am somebody who cares deeply about how I look and how my fitness levels are. I was so happy to be putting on that weight, to be growing a healthy bump and to be looking fuller. I just wanted to be able to have every experience the way I have been having when I was not pregnant. I didn’t want to hide it from anybody. Women look good when they're pregnant. They look so wholesome. There is an inherent joy, and you have to celebrate that with the world,” she elaborates.

Masaba adds, "I was greatly inspired by Kareena (Kapoor Khan, actress) because she was just out and about. She was working, having dinner, having lunch and living like a normal pregnant woman would live. Even Alia (Bhatt, actress). She had to promote a film; she promoted a film. It was not a big deal. We make too much of a deal out of it. You should just celebrate pregnancy."

As someone who has made a career of designing attires that flatter women’s bodies, Masaba Gupta has had a largely public tussle with her own. Discussion around the weight of the designer — who has been vocal about battling polycystic ovarian syndrome — was renewed when, only weeks ago, she flaunted her chiselled midriff, a result of a weight-loss routine that enabled her to be her “lightest in 10 years”. 

The feat becomes pronounced in the knowledge of the challenges that a condition like PCOS can pose. Shrugged off with terms like ‘common’ and ‘seamlessly manageable’, it could have masses disillusioned that the condition is, in fact, seamlessly manageable. “It is tough and requires discipline, but is not impossible,” admits Gupta, urging people to put their faith in a weight-loss routine when addressing the issue. 

“The biggest challenge in tackling PCOS is not related to the weight, but to the opinions. All the promoted recommendations talk of consuming medication, or adding chemicals to the body. Weight-loss has been my tried-and-tested method, and many people get irritated when I say that. It may not be the [sole] solution to PCOS, but it is a start. You need to have a streamlined [approach], and there is no room for short cuts,” says the fashion designer. 

Apart from the fact that she has learnt to avoid foods like chocolate and milk, which cause skin inflammation within a matter of a few hours, Gupta is an advocate of intermittent fasting. “I was introduced to it at an Australian spa. I was struggling with PCOS then and they had discussed the pattern which involved consuming healthy meals, only in a limited [time] window. The results were evident — I lost weight, had more energy, and was able to keep my condition in check. My skin improved, and I had mental clarity. It also adds a sense of discipline to your routine.”

For the most part, Gupta follows a familiar diet. She kicks off her day with fruits, and consumes her share of carbs with rice, rotis and sabzis for lunch. A special “roti pizza” — sans cheese — makes its debut in our diet vocabulary. “It’s what I consume for dinner, with vegetables, and paneer, if I must.” However, mindful of her tendency to lose the sense of proportional-eating while binging, she’s taken steps to avoid snacking altogether. “Some people can do it mindfully. While I will have makhanas and roasted chickpeas, if I need to, I generally avoid snacking [between meals]. It throws me out of whack, and I begin to eat whatever comes my way.” 

She is neither “into fancy diets”, nor “fad workouts”. She says she will never be caught experimenting with unconventional routines in a swimming pool, even though she recently gave a go at Animal Flow, and found it to be a “pleasant extension to yoga.” Gupta largely sticks to the basics — three days of weight-lifting, comprising movements like squats and lunges, some amount of functional training and skipping, and a lot of yoga. Occasionally, she’ll indulge in a game of tennis. 

But despite the struggle to maintain her weight, especially as part of an industry that romanticises lithe figures, Gupta has been able to establish a relationship of admiration with her routine. “My equation with fitness is a beautiful one. I set my life around it, and that’s the only way it works. If you see it as a chore, it will always be one. But this is what will help you live a better life. I thrive in it — it helps [keep me in a good] mood, manage stress, and celebrate the joy that food is. I learnt from Shiamak Davar that the body is a temple — respect it, and it will help you. My body and mind come first. The rest of the world can wait.”