She knew the risks

I read Mahesh Bhatt and Kabir Bedi and other film personalities on Parveen Babi8217;s sudden death. They recapture true images of her uniqu...

I read Mahesh Bhatt and Kabir Bedi and other film personalities on Parveen Babi8217;s sudden death. They recapture true images of her unique personality.

She joined St. Xavier8217;s College, Ahmedabad, around 1970. I was at the time full-time professor of Psychology, Director of Students8217; Counseling and Sports. She stood out with her extreme beauty and natural grace in a campus culture that was still conservative.

Her extraordinary good looks could not but be the center of campus chit-chat. One personal trait that always struck me, in my counseling sessions with her, was the fact that her family, childhood schooling, or who her parents were and where they were, was never mentioned. We only knew she came from Junagadh and perhaps from a nawabi ancestry.

Her beauty was well advertised around Ahmedabad and photographers and society 8216;8216;big-wigs8217;8217; soon began to invite her to dinners and dances. IIM campus, an all-male bastion at the time, never failed to invite her, along with other high profile students. Parveen and her friends would drop in to my counselling office to discuss remarks that other college girls would make about them 8212; more 8220;liberated8221; or 8216;8216;fashionable8217;8217;, the 8220;canteen queens8221;, etc. During those counselling exchanges and other interaction 8212; like the time she was caught smoking in the girls hostel 8212; I found that Parveen was honest, simple and even naive with regard to interpersonal and social relationships. I remember telling her: 8220;Parveen, your next two or three years will determine whether you will be a successful career woman she was a voracious reader, a top model or film star or a society dilettante8217;8217;.

Five years later, when she had already appeared on the Time cover, she invited me to the filming of Shaan in Bombay. We returned together to her Juhu home. We dined and chatted for two hours, her mother serving us, Mahesh Bhatt sitting nearby. She answered my questions regarding her professional and private life with absolute transparency. She had 2-3-4 8220;shoots8221; a day, at times. She did not really 8220;enjoy8221; the fame. What she enjoyed most was reading a good book! I got a sense of her unfulfilled goals. My advice to her was: 8216;8216;Parveen, if you do not stop living this rat-race8230; you are heading for a mental break-down!8221;

When I returned from the US, two months later, I called her best friend and 8220;contact8221; in Ahmedabad; he told me about Parveen8217;s medical leave to Switzerland. Three years later, on a visit to India, I called her, she sounded much better. I couldn8217;t accept her invitation for lunch, as my plane was to leave the same day.

Parveen Babi was someone who was always aware that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

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The writer is a Spanish Jesuit priest now based in Philadelphia