A Country Called Childhood - Deepti Naval

One wonders what a memoir by Deepti Naval will contain - maybe stuff about those movies we so loved told by the girl we so loved because she seemed so adorably non-threatening and amicable - but no, Deepti stops short of that journey and stays in the country called childhood. But this part of her life is no less interesting and appealing than the one she played on screen, and one gets a wonderful view into the life of a family that settled down in Amritsar after going through the separation of Partition. Her lawyer grandfather, her grandmother who came from Burma walking into India when the Japs attack and take over their properties (she could not bear to leave hr precious gramaphone and records behind despite the arduous walk and how she threw them away when it became too much to bear in a heartbreaking moment). How her father and mother met and their classic love story - she never hearing a  word against him, he fully passionate about her and his literature, their little vacations up the hills with the children, Deepti's older sister and younger brother, their Chandravaali home at Amritsar next to a mosque, the rides to school, the bridge they had to cross, the mad man, the house help, the mochi walas, the war, Deepti describes her childhood with a lot of love and passion and one feels like one is there fully with her on this journey, peeping over her shoulder as she writes.

The growing up years, the odd fight between their father and mother, her interest in cinema, her tryst with Balraj Sahni and Asha Parekh, her own little crush and the boy on a bicycle, her friends and mostly the poignant chapter about her friend Neeta - it brought tears to my eyes. Now it made more sense abut what she said in her talk at Hyderabad Literary Festival after reading a poem about mental health - she spoke about her role in 'Ankahee' and how she prepared for that role by visiting a mental asylum and stayed longer than she intended to. The girl gang that beat up eve teasers, her walks to a temple in the middle of school and even those rides on bullock carts staring at the sky lying on their backs in the hay. The autograph books and the little message sin them. Its beautiful, like a melody that comes to you from the past.

As memoirs go, this one was one of the better ones because it left me with vivid images of the places, the people and left me with mixed feelings - just like I felt when their family left for the USA (why did you have to go) and  was also glad she came back to join films. Glad I got the book and got her autograph on it too. When did I ever think I'd meet Ms. Chamko!