Leela Naidu on Hinduism

 

Recently, I came to know about late Leela Naidu, a former ‘Miss India’ (1954), actress and socialite. She was the daughter of Dr. Pattipati Ramaiah Naidu, a well-known nuclear physicist of his time and Dr. Marthe Mange Naidu, who was of Swiss-French origin. Leela Naidu grew up in Europe, went to an elite school in Geneva, Switzerland, and later returned to India.

I happened to read some magazine articles written immediately after her death, which focused more on her marital history (she had got married and divorced twice) and on her last years during which she suffered from alcohol addition, health issues and lived a reclusive life in Mumbai. This is natural because the readers are in that somber mood after learning about a famous person’s death and writers and journalists try to feed to his curiosity by talking more about the “last years”. I think this is a huge injustice to the deceased. When we look at a person like Leela Naidu’s whole life in totality, we would find them as winners. But if we focus on multiple divorces, drinking problem, and pitiful death in the end, we lose perspective and are deceived. Therefore, by making this argument, I am trying to dispel all the negativity that was fed into my mind by those journalists and writers who wrote sober obituaries of a splendid person like late Leela Naidu. I can say that after knowing about her life and times, I felt empathy and respect for her.

I also came across a book which was written by Leela Naidu co-authoring Jerry Pinto, titled ‘Leela: A Patchwork Life’. It is interesting to read a portion where she recalls her earliest memories and thoughts on religion. Here is a page where she describes what she thought about Hinduism and how Western people misjudged it.

Leela Naidu on Hinduism:

After reading this, we can only agree with her and feel proud that she had the courage to argue with her instructor at the Catholic school in Geneva and she came out in flying colors! How can some people from other religions brush off symbolisms in Hinduism by taking those literally and then praise their own religions’ similar practices as things of great value?

I hope you enjoyed reading above page from her book. You can find the book here.

- Rahul Tiwary