Mumbai: "Aashiqui” girl Anu Aggarwal tells the fascinating story of her self-discovery, a near-death experience and amazing recovery in her autobiography which also includes details of the men in her life, from millionaire jet-setters to superyogis.
“Anusual: Memoir of a Girl Who Came Back from the Dead”, according to Anu, is the story of a girl who was broken into a million pieces but is alive to tell the tale of how, like in a jigsaw puzzle, she brought the separated parts together back again.
In pics: ‘Aashiqui' girl Anu Aggarwal is back, to release her book ‘Anusual'
It is the story of the dusky Delhi girl who went to Mumbai and became an international model, and then a star with her very first Bollywood movie “Aashiqui” in 1990 only to chuck it all up and join a yogashram in Uttarakhand.
Coming back to Mumbai, she was involved in a horrifying car crash in 1999 that put her in a coma for 29 days. Miraculously, she recovered and put the pieces of her life back together, first taking sanyas and then returning to Mumbai to teach yoga.
In the book, published by HarperCollins, Anu says she feels fortunate to “not have left a leaf unturned, or a button unhooked in my exploration of sexuality, sensuality, or just an honest human connect with members of the opposite sex”.
About the men in her life, she says “Another time, a different place, sees another love affair. Lovers change. Nothing else is new” and provides a snapshot of these men.
Among them were Anglo-Indian jazz musician Rick “drummed the beat of my heart in unbelievable crescendo-in room-temperature aqua and delicious vegetarian food”; Giorgio Armani supermodel Danielle “woke me every morning to the most sumptuous omelettes and green tea”; Wall Street financier Christopher Welling was a follower of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Australian Jewish landowner Harvey had a “childlike enthusiasm for lovemaking”.
The other men included Laurent, a French restaurateur and art gallery owner, with whom she had a “long-distance relationship, through phone calls and bated breaths”; architectural firm owner Garry Brown; venture capitalist Pats; tall and young-bodied Iraqi Ere; Roberto, one of the top guys at the Fiat car company in Italy; and the most moneyed guy she ever met, Abdi from Nigeria, who “preferred the most natural sexual act to be performed with both of us standing up straight”.
Anu also describes her tantrik lovemaking experience in the forbidden zone with its yogi.
“‘Some days he would chant Sanskrit mantras as he placed a hazelnut in the open cavity of my mouth; or blow heat from a ireplace into my form as he focused on my eyes. On others, he sat in front of a golden yantra blob, a geometrical figure in straight lines that met against a yellow sky, accompanied by a Sanskrit incantation, and made me a silent participant.
“In the stunning landscape of rare tree and plants, I was mesmerised,” she writes.
She says sanyas brought about alchemic changes within her.
“The renunciation dress code done away with and the head no longer bare, I have internalised sanyas. Women's empowerment, which I'd worked on all my life, has transcended to human empowerment,” she says.
Recalling her near-fatal accident, she writes, “I nearly died that night. The doctors at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai still think it's a miracle I am alive. Alive to tell you about the love I discovered through a ruptured body, a brain bleed, and several incisions of needles and sutures made with surgical thread tied tight.”
“The policemen were astonished when they saw the white Mercedes take three 360-degree James Bond-kind of turns before flopping down next to the turbulent sea. It was only when they saw a female body slither out of the driver's seat that they rushed to pick up her body, which looked electrocuted. Her feet fell on the broken glass of the windscreen; blood oozed out of her soles,” she says.
Anu lives in the now, in the present moment.
“When managing a meditation centre in India's Wild West, Kutch, I found that my greatest pleasure came from helping others, In Mumbai, I work with slum kids. The healing module I had researched has metamorphosed into AnuFun Yoga, my way of teaching yoga.”
She occasionally hits the dance floor and boogies. “But not a single Bollywood offer could entice me. Astral travel did, and you could change your dreams having seen the Other side…,” she writes. PTI ZMNescribes her tantrik lovemaking experience in the forbidden zone with its yogi.
“‘Some days he would chant Sanskrit mantras as he placed a hazelnut in the open cavity of my mouth; or blow heat from a fireplace into my form as he focused on my eyes. On others, he sat in front of a golden yantra blob, a geometrical figure in straight lines that met against a yellow sky, accompanied by a Sanskrit incantation, and made me a silent participant.
“In the stunning landscape of rare tree and plants, I was mesmerised,” she writes.
She says sanyas brought about alchemic changes within her.
“The renunciation dress code done away with and the head no longer bare, I have internalised sanyas. Women's empowerment, which I'd worked on all my life, has transcended to human empowerment,” she says.
Recalling her near-fatal accident, she writes, “I nearly died that night. The doctors at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai still think it's a miracle I am alive. Alive to tellyou about the love I discovered through a ruptured body, a brain bleed, and several incisions of needles and sutures made with surgical thread tied tight.”
“The policemen were astonished when they saw the white Mercedes take three 360-degree James Bond-kind of turns before flopping down next to the turbulent sea. It was only when they saw a female body slither out of the driver's seat that they rushed to pick up her body, which looked electrocuted. Her feet fell on the broken glass of the windscreen; blood oozed out of her soles,” she says.
Anu lives in the now, in the present moment.
“When managing a meditation centre in India's Wild West, Kutch, I found that my greatest pleasure came from helping others, In Mumbai, I work with slum kids. The healing module I had researched has metamorphosed into AnuFun Yoga, my way of teaching yoga.”
She occasionally hits the dance floor and boogies. “But not a single Bollywood offer could entice me. Astral travel did, and you could change your dreams having seen the Other side…,” she writes.
