People had her pegged as a parallel cinema actor, who would fade with time. But there is more to Deepti Naval than just being the Chamko girl, Yoshita Sengupta discovers
u00a0
Deepti Naval is the sort of writer, who interests you more than her work -- which is not to say that we weren't charmed by The Mad Tibetan, a book of short stories by Naval. The actress who has also painted, directed, written poetry and taken photographs, speaks to Sunday MiD DAY about her new role.


Deepti Naval at her Versova residence. Photo/Nimesh Dave
u00a0
Your father was the head of the English department at Hindu College, Delhi University. Your mother taught you the art of story-telling. How has that affected your writing?
My mother trained me to visualise things. She would narrate stories very vividly, painting a picture with words. My mother had lived a very different life in Burma -- it was a different sensibility, a different time and she was very good at describing the ambience and experiences. That, I think, is one of my strong points -- to create images with words.

Every actor idolises another actor; every painter is inspired by the work of some artist. Who are you inspired by?
It's a little hard for me to take names. I have read randomly in life. I've read the poetry of (Rainer Maria) Rilke and Pablo Neruda. One of my favourite writers has been Sylvia Plath. My all-time favourite writer remains Gabriel Garcia Marquez and my favourite book is Hundred Years of Solitude.

I also like Mark Slouka's The Hare's Mask. Those stories are complex, layered and you have to try hard to understand them. I don't write like that. I keep it straight and simple. I usually pick up a book if I find the blurb interesting. That's how I discovered Ben Okri and grew to love his works for the fantasy lands he creates. Among Indian writers, I really like Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth.