The first thing she ate when she came to Mumbai was roadside chaat . For Lisa Ray, Mumbai is close to her heart, more so because she has decided to make it home. “I’m shifting base back to Mumbai (from Canada),” says Lisa in her trademark breezy tone of voice. “I’ve always been a nomad. This is a new chapter in my life; I am renewing my ties with India, something which I’ve always wanted to do,” she says in a telephone interview from Mumbai.
Diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, in 2009, the model, actor, TV show host, and social activist is also a writer now. Lisa’s book on her life is almost ready — she has finished the manuscript and is giving it the final touches. “It makes sense to spend more time on the book in India as a large part of it is influenced by it,” she observes.
Lisa has the ability to connect with people through words — her blog, The Yellow Diaries, in which she narrated her story of survival, is testimony to this. She is also a keen observer of people and the environment she is in — it’s only natural that she writes. “I was a voracious reader as a child and always wanted to be a writer,” says Lisa. Her book is based on the success of her blog.
She feels it is important for her to write about her experiences “without qualifying it as good or bad,” and rather look at them all as “just another story from life”. “To be able to express is my birthright as well,” she adds. Lisa attributes her ability to observe to her mixed blood (she was born to a Polish mother and a Bengali father). “Also, being an only child, I tend to observe more. There is so much to watch in life. Just being quiet and passive at times is rewarding,” says Lisa.
Marriage has only added to Lisa’s share of happy experiences. She married Jason Dehni, a banking executive, about two years back. “It’s a blessing,” she says of her marriage. “He understands who I am. He is in Bangkok and we miss each other...” But, when they meet, they will each have so much to talk about; so much to share, she says.
Lisa is also set to re-enter Bollywood. “The sort of work coming out of India inspires me,” she says. “The kind of roles that I’m offered today wasn’t really happening in the 90s.” But to her, every film, every character she plays, is an experience. “I’m more of a collector of experiences.” She goes through the process of working in a film with her heart and soul. “The end product you see is just the tip of the ice-berg; there’s so much of work that goes into it,” she says. Lisa has a long list of her favourite films and directors. But the closest to her heart, among her movies are Water and TheWorld Unseen .
A philanthropist, Lisa hopes to channel her positive energy and time towards a cancer institute in India. “This is again one of the reasons I’m in India,” she says. “There’s lots of work I can do here; I’m talking to potential collaborators to get started,” she explains.
Her health has been “very good,” she says, adding that she is “very diligent about diet and exercise”. Cancer, she says, has taught her a lot; changed her a lot. “I’m only starting to understand it. Now, I’m not hyper-conscious about how I look or what I wear. I’m a lot kinder and mellower. I believe in being real, rather than putting on a mask. Life is bittersweet — I say that in the best way.” She stresses on preventive health. “I urge people to not let things go out of hand till it’s too late, like myself. Learn from me.”
In one of her blog posts titled ‘MM Memos and Gangajal’ dated March 14, 2010, Lisa writes poignantly of her visit to Rishikesh with her father. She speaks of how her tonsured hair blended in the “city of mystics, mendicants and seekers”. A beautiful calmness came over her as she sat with her father by the Ganges at dusk: “Sometimes the world is so beautiful and so fierce I can feel my heart tear. I would like to be around for some more time,” she writes. Recall the words to her and she smiles. “I do want to stick around…I have so many stories to tell.”
