By Sukant Deepak

Jaipur, Jan 24 (IANS): There is a flash back. She remembers the time when all that an introvert young girl wanted to do was write. "That's one profession where you don't need to interact with people."

As fate would have it, Lisa Ray's name became synonymous with modelling and acting. "I was an accidental actor. In fact, there was a time during the peak of my career when I stopped taking phone calls and shut myself at home. And just read," she said.

At Jaipur Literature Festival, Ray talked about her book "Close to the Bone" and insisted that it isn't a celebrity memoir, but a memoir of the soul. "It's a long travel within," she said.

The book chronicles her battle with bone cancer, and goes beyond. "I have come out of the darkest phase which made me realise that no amount of money and fame can hold your hand when you are not in a good physical and emotional space," Ray said.

Stressing that the best of authors write about the experiences they never express, Ray, who is of mixed lineage and has lived across continents, said that moving from one place to another when one chooses not to can be a painful experience.

"I never had to face that for I moved wherever I wished to. However, seeing the refugee crisis, one can only imagine their lamentations," she said.

Stressing that the release of her book held a more important place for her than that of any film she had worked in, the writer said, "In this, I have seized my own narrative and I'm telling the story on my own terms. That is really special."

Ray feels that a part of her has always 'watched' herself, something which immensely helped her while writing the book. "I have always been able to look at myself and my actions as an observer. That quality can be really helpful for a writer," she said.