When she acts, she completely transforms herself into the character. When she paints, the canvas comes alive. If an iota of boredom seeps into her life, she packs her bags and voyages to Ladakh alone. And if she ever gets depressed and needs a totally different mode to express her thoughts, she composes profound poetry. Meet the versatile Deepti Naval whose posse of poems Black Wind and Other Poems was recently released at the Oxford Book Store in the Capital.

Published by MapinLit (Mallika Sarabhai’s publilshing house), Deepti’s book is divided into two sections: the first, Black Wind, deals with the turbulent part of her life (1989-94), while in the second, The Silent Scream, she talks about the women from a mental asylum whom she had met while researching for her film Aks.

It took her a long time to come out with this book of highly personalized poems. Recalls she, “I would keep scribbling something on the paper, but could never frame the write sentence. I was worried at one point that these poems might disconcert people. But then I thought, the difficult phase of my life is over and it’s time to move on.” And even though her intense poetry oscillates between facing the hardships of life and bouncing back, Deepti for sure is back on track with A Melody In Her Pulse. She states, “The dark phase is over…. and I have moved on.”

The book’s cover painted by Deepti is quite reminiscent of Van Gogh’s sunflowers, but Deepti’s sunflowers are dull and withered, the wilted flowers making a statement, teaching an important lesson. “I want to accept pain as happily as I do happiness.” What’s on the anvil, Deepti? Prose, poetry, painting or photography? “Everything, that I have always been doing backed by the freedom to do it my way!” A final lull in the storm, may be?