A Country Called Childhood’ is a memoir which tells the tale of Deepti Naval during

her childhood days in Amritsar and the tumultuous incidents which occurred in the
1950s and 1960s at that time. The book also details the 1963 Indian War and the
1965 Indo-Pak War. Naval calls it to be an “extremely visual and evocative prose”.
The book also notes actor Deepti Naval’s love for cinema and how the experiences
she encountered during her youth shaped her career in films.

“… I wanted to tell the world what a splendid childhood I had and it is the… phase
of my life which is really worth sharing,” said the actor-author about her new book.

Title

Explaining the meaning behind the title of the book, she says ‘Country’ is a metaphor
for childhood.

“It is a part of life from where we once migrate, there is no going back to that
country… There is a country we visit and revisit but childhood is one country once
we step out, there is no going back. You can only recall it in memory,” shared Naval.

More about the book:

A Country Called Childhood is Naval’s fourth book, following her poetry collections
Lamha Lamha, and Black Wind and Other Poems, and a short story collection titled
The Mad Tibetan.

In her book, the Chashme Buddoor star relives her earliest memories, and through
them, paints a portrait of a city–and nation–on the brink of a new beginning. The
narrative spans the early years of her life when the walls of her family home seemed
to loom large, a cast of curious characters populated her neighbourhood and seasonal
sandstorms threatened to obliterate the world. Even as a child, Naval felt the tremors
of political contention, and in the book, she recalls the naivety through which she
witnessed the momentous events occurring around her.

The stories she tells in A Country Called Childhood are far bigger than herself and
speak of much more than just her own life. They are a record through which the
reader may witness a small part of the Amritsar of her childhood. They are a
celebration of family,diversity, and a nation on the cusp of a new beginning. Most
prominently, Naval adds, “It is about girlhood. It is about the joy of being a girl.”
Naval has also beautifully captured growing up in the middle of strong women like
her grandmother, her bua who was part of the Quit India Movement, and of course,
her mother. Long before the term 'feminist' made an appearance in that part of
Punjab, my grandmother was a feminist, she wrote in her memoir. For Naval, her
grandmother holding on to her principles in those times despite being a woman in
Amritsar was an empowering example.

"The same was with my mother who was very tender, gentle and compassionate,
and strong when it came to her belief. She showed me how to find beauty in every
little thing in life, and not wait for something large to happen."

She also talks about her beginnings as an actress in her childhood, her earliest
workshops in acting being entertaining her sister and acting like a “choochi” (stupid).

“And I would instantly transform—become a choochi—start babbling in totli

Her interest in acting began with her mother, who also shared the love and talent for
it.

“My family loved cinema but if there was one member of the family who actually
loved to sing and dance, it was my mother. She was especially fond of doing
dramas; she would direct plays, and also act in them along with other young
women.” excerpt from her memoir.

She also talks about how the biggest influence in her life as an actress was Indu
Bhaiya, her older cousin, who had also aspired to be an actor before having to move
on from this dream.

The Process of writing

Speaking about the process of penning down her book , naval says it took her many
years to jot down memories of her childhood.

“I started jotting down memories from a long time. I was making notes the way I
remembered them. Later when I started to actually do the main chuck of writing
for the book that's when I was able to recreate those memories.”
 Some chapters came to her fully formed, while others required painstaking research,
meticulous fact-checking with relatives and friends, and further cross-checking of
those facts with other relatives and friends who might have a different version of how
the events unfolded. Many of the stories were told to her by her parents, who opened
up about their lives only when they relocated to the United States. “I got a chance to
look at my parents’ life—to see their strides, their struggles, their aspirations, and all
the efforts they made to make a life for us,” Naval muses. “It was like taking a step
back to look at who my parents really were.”.

Reason behind memoir

The reason why she chose to revisit the days lived by her younger self at the age of
70, was because through this book the actress wishes to tell the world where she
came from, what she was made up of and how she turned out the way she is today.
Through her memoir, she also wanted to pay homage to her parents who gifted her a
wonderful childhood.

“anything up ahead in life is no match to the splendid memories i have of my

Highlights of her life as described in the book

Her parent’s relationship

The actress recalls hostile exchanges taking place between her parents as a child, and
also relives the times where her mother projected her anger on to her. These led to
insecurities in her future relationships as well. Furthermore, their separation was a
traumatic experience for her.

“These hostile exchanges between my mother and father never let me feel
completely secure in any relationship later in my life. These were the earliest
cracks in my picture-perfect life; the image of something perfect, and yet not
meant to last.”
 “Their separation has been the biggest trauma for me. Two people who came
together in their twenties to share a dream, and in their seventies realised it
wasn’t meant to be . . . This is a fact that has been the biggest fiction of my
life! I still haven’t been able to come to terms with it, and still keep trying to
bring them together . . . even in death.”

Running away from home

Naval also ran away from home at the age of 13, driven by the desire to see Kashmir,
where back in the day most movies and music videos were shot.

“Besides the act of leaving home, I had no concrete plan in mind, no real idea of
what I was hoping to achieve, nothing beyond an ostensible desire to see the
mountains of Kashmir. This was because I’d seen a series of movies shot in Kashmir
in the period before I set off on my great escape.”

Visiting the Border

In the book, she recalls the naivety through which she witnessed the momentous
events occurring around her.

War to her protected, imaginative mind, was a spectacle of Sabre jets flying
overhead; it was the pantomime of taking cover when mock sirens went off to
prepare civilians for the eventuality of an actual bombardment. In order to show his
children the grave reality of war, her father took her and her sister to the border.
Naval writes of the smell of metal that pervaded the air, the scorched earth, the dead
bodies lying in the dust. “The gloom set right into my heart,” she says. “The memory
of the war has been stark in my mind ever since.”

Elbow crusade

After being sexually assaulted on a crowded bus, Deepti began the Elbow Crusade”
with her peers. They practised how to defend themselves against harassment and
planned counter attacks.
“The girls club elbowed their way through that time. Strategies were worked out.
‘You DARE touch me!’ was the new war slogan.”