Was Deepti's heart attack the reason for her heart attack?

Ali Peter John

I don't know why I felt like calling my friend; Deepti Naval in Manali some days ago She was sounding very chirpy and said that she was very happy and at peace with herself after a very long time and did not miss Mumbai or the hectic life. She said she would be back only she felt the need to and I wished her all the best.

And only this morning I received the news about her having a heart attack while she was sleeping in cottage in Manali and how she was rushed to a hospital in Chandigarh where she had to go through an angioplasty before she was discharged only yesterday and her first lines were; I am going to live through happier times; She was the same gutsy gentle genius I have known for more than forty years; from the day she landed in Mumbai from New York and lived as a paying guest in a cooperative housing society somewhere near the S N D T Campus in Juhu. In all the years that I have known her I have never seen her sitting Idle and I have never stopped marvelling at her multi- faceted talent.

it took her only a few years to establish herself as a formidable actress who could stand out in any kind of role. I don't have to mention all her films because she was good or very good in.every film she did and still does at 68. Deepti had started off with a T V Show in which she interviewed celebrities from India who visited New York.

it was while she was doing this show that she met and interviewed Gulzar and decided to be an actress in Hindi films with a striking debut in: Ek Baar Phir : and then there was no stopping her She always wanted to write and had her first book of poems; ;Lamha Lamha; in Hindi but with a very strong influence of Urdu and the poetry of Gulzar. She was a good painter and has had exhibitions all over the country. Her most. well known painting was ; The Pregnant Nun; which was bought by Dimple Kapadia for quite a price. She has her own painting studios in Manali; Kashmir and in Mumbai. Even while she was at the peak of her acting career she wrote her second book ;The Wild Wind and other stories which was all about her experiences with the inmates of the mental asylum in Ranchi.

She was a restless spirit who wanted to experiment with every form of creativity and wrote several scripts;: some of which she wrote in collaboration with me. Her desire to write and direct her own film was fulfilled when she made her own first film: Do Pause Ki Baarish Char Aane Ki Dhoop: with her friend Manisha Koriala in the lead role. The film however has still not been released. Deepti has a keen ear for music and plays the piano whenever she has the time. She also wanted to do theatre and found her dream opportunity when she did Ek Mulaaqat with her playing the role of the Punjabi poet :Amrita Pritam:who has been her Idol and her ideal from the days she was in school.

Her personal life has been the kind which sometimes goes into the making of legends. She had a very emotional childhood with both her parents being enlightened professors in New York.

When in Mumbai she was closely associated with Gulzar and there was even talk about their getting married.She had other affairs with men like Rahul Das Gupta Marc Zuber and the eccentric Nana Patekar and Vinod Pandit a musician who was a nephew of Pandit Jasraj. But the only man she married was the director Prakash Jha and I was a witness to the wedding conducted according to Arya Samaj rites but this marriage led to a separation: but they are still the best of friends She continues to live a hectic life with doing films and web series and whatever else gives her creative satisfaction. For the last few years she has been writing a book called ; A country: called childhood which is now with the publishers and is expected to be released early next year.

She is known for her being over - sensitive and one who loses her temper fast. I have seen her taking some very wrong decisions on an impulse and then regretting them. The last few months have been very tense for her. She was still getting over the shock of losing her mother who she was very close to when one of her best friends Lalita Tamhane died of cancer during these dark times of the Coronavirus. Isn't all this enough to give strongest man or woman a heart attack ? And hasn't Deepti given her delicate heart all the reasons to protest and revolt and tell her that she has been going overboard with her life and that it is high time she took it easy ?