Tennis Player Sania Mirza and her sister Anam Mirza are working together to represent the idea of ‘Self Love’ this season. Anam Mirza, who recently married legendary cricketer Mohd. Azharuddin’s son Asad in December also consciously follows her elder sister Sania’s footsteps of self-motivation. She has been working towards building her Hyderabad based marketing agency, with her business partner, Sania and her four-year-old lifestyle exhibition called Label Bazaar. Label Bazaar will be hosting its 12th Season in Hyderabad and in Bangalore on the 29th of February 2020 overlining the theme of ‘Loving Yourself‘ every day.
Sania who is back on the court after taking a maternity break since 2017, is championing her first win at Hobart International. Sania will be joining the growing tribe of tennis-playing mothers who have returned to the game after childbirth. This comes from sheer perseverance and passion for the sport and for fitness. Her ideology of loving and nurturing yourself has made her an icon for all working mothers in the country.
Sania and Anam Mirza speak to thestyle.world about fitness, sisterhood and more.
Sania Mirza
You’re back on the court after a break and already championing your first win at Hobart International. You’re the growing tribe of tennis-playing mothers who have returned to the game after childbirth. How challenging was it and what kept you going?
Making a comeback isn’t easy for anyone. There’s so much more pressure and so many more eyes on you with all these expectations. It was much more challenging because your body plays such an important role in the sports you play, and my body underwent so many changes during my pregnancy. What I realised is that there’s no right time for a comeback and when it felt right, I just did it. My love for what I do, is what really kept me going.
What role do you play at Label Bazaar? How do you juggle between your sport, family, kid, social life and Label Bazaar? Any tips for others?
I am the brand ambassador of the Label Bazaar. Even though it is like family because it’s my own sisters venture, I would still love to be associated with it simply because it’s a brand that I believe in and I believe that they are changing the whole affordable fashion game by curating a mix of upcoming and runway designers in so many cities. I am lucky that I have a very supportive family and a great team that help me multitask at being an athlete, mother, brand associations and my personal life.
What is your fitness and beauty regime?
How has life changed after marrying Asad? How did you celebrate Valentine’s Day recently? Any love/romance tips for others who look up to you both as an ideal couple?
Life remains the same pretty much. I have to go to work and still have the same errands to run. It’s just that I am living in a different house and I have to juggle in between two houses now. That’s probably the only major difference I am having as of now. Asad and I have known each other for a couple of years, and we got married within nine months’ time after our engagement. Our families have known each other for a long time, and everything happened very organically. So, there was nothing major for me to adjust as such.
For Valentine’s Day, I was in Bangalore while Asad was in Hyderabad. Although, he did bring me flowers when I got home, which I think was pretty sweet. Honestly, I am not so big on Valentine’s Day, as I personally think love should be celebrated every day.
One thing I am very sure works out for every marriage, and I am sure a lot of people will agree with me on this is that there should be transparency and honesty in the relationship. You should take time out for each other as much as possible, no matter how difficult that is. Love does get monotonous, but then it’s all about focusing on the smaller things and appreciating each other for the little things in life.
How do you maintain a work – life balance with your marketing agency and your four-year-old lifestyle exhibition Label Bazaar and your personal life? Some tips for other women out there?
I start work around 10.30-11.00 am and come back around 7.00 and then I head to the gym or go for a swim. Most of my days are spent like that. The only way of balancing this out is planning your days ahead and having a timeline set for yourself. One thing I would really encourage everyone to do is to try to wake up a little earlier and spend some time with your family. Life does get a little hectic but it’s manageable.
Label Bazaar is hosting its 12th Season with the love theme. How is it different from your previous exhibitions? What can everyone expect?
Label Bazaar was started four years ago. I started it when I was in college because I wanted to get a certain kind of outfits which was not available in Hyderabad. When I think of it, I literally started it to make fashion accessible to me and then it just started getting bigger and move to bigger cities and now I can proudly say that we are 12th season down!
Every season is different from each other. When we pick clothes or designers, we have a certain checklist that we follow. Infact, we choose most of our clothes considering if we ourselves would buy them or not. This time, we are bringing ‘Experimental fashion’ to Bangalore as we believe that Bangalore is a lot more experimental in their fashion as compared to a Hyderabad. The designers we have on board this time are very experimental in nature and have a fresh approach towards their clothes, which I am sure that Bangalore hasn’t seen before.
How do you both complement each other at workplace – how do you work together, divide roles and sort out issues amicably, bringing the best version of yourself and help make Label Bazaar see the growth, it has seen till date?
Self-motivation is very important to me and it fades away if you don’t keep working on it. I am lucky that I have a very supportive family, friends that absolutely push me to do my best, even though on days where I don’t feel like going to work. Also, I have an unbelievable team who I love to work with who keeps me motivated on a day to day basis.
Sania plays a very crucial role in my fashion choices or all the crisis I have in general. And I think it’s the same with her as we discuss almost everything possible and try to support each other in every way possible. For example: If I am working on something and ten of them approve of it but somehow if Sania doesn’t get convinced, I would drop the plan then and there, because that’s how much faith and trust we have in each other.
Every season has been different and this season we are talking about self-love. We have got clothes that are very easy breezy and suits every occasion. We have a lot of varieties coming in with a lot of fresh designers participating this season. We can’t wait for Bangalore to have a look at all of this.
What are your plans ahead?
We have just wrapped up our Hyderabad show and working towards our show that’s happening in Bangalore on February 29th at Taj Westend. This year seems exciting. We are planning something in July and end of the year.
