Deepti Naval recalls when she ran away to Kashmir at the age of 13: ‘Police brought me back to my parents’

Deepti Naval has said that she ran away to Kashmir at the young age of 13 as she had seen beautiful songs picturised in the Kashmir valley. She then said that she was embarrassed to write about it in her book but it was poet-lyricist Gulzar, who encouraged her to do so. (Also read: When Gulzar said Kajra Re in Bunty Aur Babli was inspired by lines behind trucks)

In her book A Country Called Childhood: A Memoir, Deepti had written that she ran away to Kashmir to see the mountains that she saw in films such as Kashmir Ki Kali and Jab Jab Phool Khile.

“I was 13, actually. You can’t keep track of where your thoughts go. I had seen a lot of movies at that time whose songs were all picturised in Kashmir. It used to be so dream-like. We used to stay in Amritsar in a walled city and I used to keep dreaming about going to the mountains,” Deepti said at an literary event on Saturday.

She added, “So, I decided one day to take off, leave home and live in Kashmir. I took a train to Pathankot, and then I was going to take a bus to Jammu, and then another bus to Srinagar. But I got caught at Pathankot only. The police brought me back to my parents. A complaint was also lodged back in Amritsar.”

Deepti also talked about how things have changed now and said she did not care if it was safe or not, and simply walked out of her house. She added that India is not safe for women anymore, and now it is not possible for a woman to sit on a train by herself and land on a deserted platform. Deepti also said that she could return to her home ‘unscathed’ because ‘times were more innocent’.