Mother’s Day: I wish I were as strong as mom, says Rayane

This Mother’s Day, mother-daughter duo Radikaa Sarathkumar and Rayane R Mithun speak to us about their bond and its evolution over the years. While the veteran actress shares that they always celebrate Mother’s Day, her daughter, who is a digital creator, tells us, “For me, Mother’s Day is a day to do something special with my mom and how important she is to me. She knows I love her, and I tell her that every day.”I want to have a very special relationship with my daughter, like mom & I do: RayaneSpeaking about why she named her daughter Radhya, Rayane says, “I always knew that I wanted to name my daughter after my mom.My mom and I have a very special relationship, and I think I was manifesting to have the same bond with my child. When I had a baby girl, there was no second question in my mind about what I would name her. So, we went with Radhya.”‘I HAVE EVOLVED FROM BEING A PROTECTIVE MOTHER TO A LOVING MOTHER’Radikaa: We are more like friends. Over the years, I have evolved from being a protective mother to a loving mother. We didn’t plan and tell each other, ‘Let’s be friends now.’ As she grew up, I found the right balance between being a mom and a good friend to her.Rayane: That evolution was a natural change that happened with age. Our mothers tend to be protective when we are younger. But as we grow up, they give us freedom, and the bond evolves from the initial protectiveness to friendship. We are co-dependent and can’t exist without each other. We have to bug one another. We share even the smallest things with each other.‘AFTER I HAD RAYANE, I STARTED LOOKING AT WORK DIFFERENTLY’Radikaa: From the time she was born, Rayane defined how I lived my life. When you have a child, there comes a shift in your thinking. After having her, I started looking at work differently, as I also wanted to spend quality time with my children. I’m a workaholic, but Rayane spends most of her time with her kids. She is a hands-on mom, while I was a mom who was there for my children, but was also working. I would run from film shoots to pick her up at school.Rayane: Motherhood has been chaotic but good. My start to motherhood wasn’t the greatest because both my kids were premature. So, I was thrown into the deep end and told to swim. I’ve been learning it on the go. I was working till I had my second child, and then I took some time off because I have a husband (former Indian cricketer Abhimanyu Mithun) who travels quite a bit for work. So, I decided that I had to stay at home to look after my kids, especially during their infancy.‘WE HAVE A DETAILED PLAN OF HOW WE WANT TO SPEND EVERY HOUR DURING A TRIP’Radikaa: When I have work and can’t travel alone, she accompanies me. Her husband is very supportive. He will say, ‘I will take care of the kids; you go with amma ’. We have a detailed plan of what we want to do on these trips. And we try to stick to it.Rayane: During vacations, we get to be alone and only have ourselves to deal with. That’s what’s very special about it. We love visiting London and Colombo. London is a second home for us. We are very comfortable there. Even though we know our way around London, we still like to explore things we haven’t done before and try to do something new every single time.‘RAYANE LIKES TO WATCH ALL MOVIES, BUT I’M VERY PICKY’Radikaa: Rayane, like Sarath, watches all movies, but I’m very picky. I prefer watching comedy. When we go for movies, it’s a joint decision as to which film we will watch. But I have a habit of sleeping during movies if I don’t like them.Rayane: We do have similarities. Like our tastes in clothes and jewellery, which are similar because we are either together or call each other while we are shopping.