Padma Lakshmi Shared An Emotional Tribute After A Relative's Death
Over the weekend, Padma Lakshmi shared a tribute on Twitter to her grandmother, Rajilakshmi Krishnamurti, who recently passed away. "I am heartbroken. My dear paati is gone. Rajima lived life serving others," she wrote. The "Top Chef" host shared a slideshow featuring memories of her paati both young and old. Lakshmi went on explain that her grandmother was her "rock" and "much more than a grandma," as she helped Lakshmi's mother raise her.
In a lengthy remembrance that continued across many tweets, Lakshmi also attributed her success in the food world to her grandmother. "I wouldn't have my career without her guidance. More importantly, I would never be who I am without her love & care," she said. "She didn't just teach me about food, but about life through food." Detailing the many things that made her proud to be Krishnamurti's granddaughter, Lakshmi elaborated on her grandmother's impressive achievements.
What Lakshmi's grandmother meant to her
Rajilakshmi Krishnamurti contributed significantly to her community in India, as Lakshmi shared on Twitter. She "started the first Montessori school in Tanjavur and was a teacher for 20 years," Lakshmi said. Her grandmother also worked at a hospital, "helped set up at an orphanage," and gave medical attention to children living in slums. That was all while she wrangled up countless dinners for her family on a two-burner stove and taught Lakshmi "how to temper spices" and about the value of hard work.
The former model also reminded followers that they might remember her grandmother's face and story from Lakshmi's work, such as the cover of her "Tomatoes for Neela" cookbook. Lakshmi also mentioned Krishnamurti in the following passage from "Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir:" "I always thought that what Rajima did with those cast-off peels was a metaphor for how she dealt with her arranged marriage. She transformed those peels, with palm sugar for sweetness and tamarind for tang, into something precious" (via Good Reads). Lakshmi admired her grandmother for her "great palate and sense of cooking," she once shared with Northern California Public Media, and loved watching her in the kitchen. The Bravo host summed up her Twitter tribute simply with, "I love you Jima, na poittu varren," which translates to something like, "I'll see you again."