“What were your first impressions of each other?”

I pose this question to the effervescent duo — Sameera Reddy and her mother-in-law, Manjri Varde. Before this conversation, the rabbit hole of Instagram reels I went down clarified that the two don’t shy away from stepping on the toes of conventions of the societal saas-bahu (mother-in-law and daughter-in-law) dynamic, which usually pits one party against the other.

Their rapport is an outlier.

In response to my question, Sameera smiles, “She’s [Manjri] a bizarre mix. Her sense of dressing used to throw me off in the beginning — I never understood it. There was so much going on: colour, silver and quirk.” Cut to the present, and she’s come to love her mother-in-law’s whimsical, zany style index. “I even borrow some of her stuff now,” she laughs.

Manjri’s avant-garde energy, even at 75, has never failed to amuse her daughter-in-law. And this admiration cuts both ways. As Manjri points out, “My first impression of Sameera was that she is this lovely, tall, beautiful girl. She is so photogenic, right?”

In the last decade, these impressions haven’t waned one bit. Instead, their fondness for each other has only grown.

Sameera chimes in, “What really made me appreciate her was that she’s different. She’s cool and traditional at the same time. Her outlook is modern, where she’s thinking about me as much as about her son.”

The Sassy Saasu and Messy Mama

A fascinating dichotomy of contrasts.

That’s what Sameera and Manjri are. An interview call with them involved more than just the stars (pun intended) aligning, but favour from the internet Gods, too. Just as I thought, we’d finally cracked the code to a seamless interview, Sameera tells Manjri, “Please clean the lipstick off your teeth.” The latter hurriedly proceeds out of the frame to do so.

This intergenerational candour is fascinating. And I can attest, the reels you see, do a pretty good job of conveying their dynamic in reality, as well — they’re comedic gold.

The duo seizes every opportunity to resist the typical labels that one would expect from such a relationship. And the internet loves it; their fans laud them for their

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