Soon after Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed defence minister in the recent Cabinet reshuffle in the Narendra Modi government, an old picture of her making avakaaya pickle or mango pickle surfaced on the internet.
There's also a video, said to have been taken some time in 2013, where Sitharaman can be seen preparing pickles with other members of the house.
The page reportedly belongs to her husband Parakala Prabhakar.
A caption under the video on YouTube reads, "Akka and Nirmala making Avakaaya in Isavaasyam, Summer 2013."
Parakala Prabhakar, who is a communications adviser to the government of Andhra Pradesh, had also tweeted pictures in 2013 regarding the same.
While we regularly get to see pictures and watch videos of persons holding public offices, they usually offer a glimpse of their professional lives.
Their personal lives, understandably, are well-guarded.
These photographs and videos, however, give us that rare peek into the personal life of one of India’s top ranking ministers.
Many have praised the minister for being "humble" and for her "simplicity". (Though Sitharaman was made the Minister for Commerce and Industry only in 2014, she held a number of important posts in the BJP prior to that.)
But as singer Chinmayi Sripada pointed out in a series of tweets, women, working in different fields, are often judged by and applauded for the "homely" duties they perform, even though they may be achievers in their careers.
Sadly, this standard rarely applies to men.
This is what journalist Kavitha Rao had to say:
(This article was originally published on The News Minute.)
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