I believe in the philosophy of turning the other cheek.

My father was a great admirer of music and the arts, so there was always a lot of culture in the house. As it happened, while my father was the ambassador in Portugal, the ambassador's residence had a piano, and so I started learning how to play it at the age of five.

For me, everybody is the same. If you are not nice to me, I will say, 'Okay, we will try to make it nice tomorrow.' I am like that. I am not a confrontational person.

I am glad that my weight never affected my singing career, but other than this, I faced a lot problems: like, I was unable to talk for 20 minutes after coming down from the stage after my shows. I got very tired because of my fatness.

My mother, who is a Carnatic musician, started a school for children when I was around three, and I grew up listening to her teaching students.

I studied secondary education.

When I was teaching English and trying to get kids passionate about reading, the most effective weapon I had was 'The Martian Chronicles.'

Our mother was a very religious and observant Jew, our father less so. She was kind of driving the religious education, so for us it was more a burden and an obligation when we were kids at that age.