DSC Jaipur literature festival: Mumbai author engages crowd

Updated on: 25 January,2011 07:51 AM IST |
Fiona Fernandez | fiona.fernandez@mid-day.com

Jerry Pinto regaled audiences with his anecdotes while working with Leela Naidu

Jerry Pinto regaled audiences with his anecdotes while working with Leela Naidu

The crowd was a mixed bag of Dilliwallas, Jaipur's cinema enthusiasts, as well as the media that was keen to hear Mumbai author Jerry Pinto speak about his experiences with the beautiful Leela Naidu while piecing together one of the most anticipated autobiographies of one of Indian cinema's most enigmatic personalities.

It started when a sweaty 21-year-old journalist met her for a story at her home in the presence of her husband and poet Dom Moraes. They met again after nearly 20 years when Naidu contacted Pinto to write her biography, A Patchwork Life. "She is an amazing writer. So I wondered why she'd want me to write her memoirs. She confided how she learnt to not repeat what Dom had encountered while writing his autobiography. 'It's a lonely process', she would say," Pinto said.

"The last two pages in the book are literal translations of her writing from French ufffd I was spellbound reading lines like 'the night of a blank page'! Leela was also quite polite when it came to giving her feedback for every draft that I would submit to her. She had to oblige so many people that we had to eventually delete several episodes in the book," he revealed.

Pinto's connect with the actress and the trust they shared came through during the course of this engaging session that did not invite any post-lunch yawns.

It was part of a larger session, Patchwork Lives, which also featured Jaishree Mishra where Mishra and Pinto were in conversation with Jai Arjun Singh.

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