And then she landed on her feet

This book vacillates between being a memoir and a self-help guide but manages to retain the reader's curiosity throughout.

In Free Fall by Mallika Sarabhai is somewhere between a memoir and a self-help book — it explores the author’s childhood and many incidents from her life, and at the same time, explains in detail some of the therapies and healing techniques she learnt over the course of several years.

The first chapter gives a glimpse of the author’s childhood, growing up as the daughter of Mrinalini and Vikram Sarabhai, and a brief look at the family’s lineage, and the founding of the iconic institution Darpana in Ahmedabad. There are also references to the beginnings of the desire to be thin, a love for food, and a laidback attitude, which almost always meant that she was slow at sports.

That first chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the book. You know that there will be more on diets and losing weight, and the second chapter picks that up right on cue. There are snippets of family history, fad diets, especially a rather frightening Complan and cigarette diet that the author discovers whilst in college. Most of this chapter focuses on calorie counts, fasting, more dieting, and maintaining body weight, and a note on those with anorexia and what they end up doing.

As the book progresses, the author struggles with smoking, more dieting, and entering politically charged environments following certain events that lead to more and more trouble for her. While engaging with the crew of Peter Brook’s film Mahabharata, in which she plays a pivotal role, her drinking habits change. There is a chapter on dance, and its effects on the body, and how Darpana uses yoga for its students.

When a tumour scare jolts her life and her career, she turns to alternative treatments from various professionals and healers. She dances through her pregnancies and goes into detail about her diets during those times.

A constant desire

There is an interesting account of an encounter with the Tomatis method of learning languages, along with snippets on how the method works, and chromotherapy, with a list of colours and what they do. You also have mud therapy, references to Ayurveda, and homoeopathy for various ailments. Many individuals and practitioners are introduced.

Running like a refrain through all that happens is a constant desire to lose weight, to be thin, and to keep healthy at the same time. Some eating disorders make appearances along with certain decidedly bizarre diets. Not everything is healthy, and sometimes, ailments follow. The writing style is simple enough, neither too descriptive nor too prone to contemplative reflection. In Free Fall is a breezy read, and the checklists for various alternative healing therapies, Ayurveda, chakras, and light therapy are fairly detailed. The myriad experiences the author explores range from childhood activities and personal achievements to standing for elections, dance, cinema, and childbirth. That is a lot of ground to cover, particularly for such a slim volume. Sometimes they don’t segue as well together, considering their breadth and scope, and the introduction of self-help techniques in the midst of it all jars. Perhaps a slightly deeper exploration with more content might have helped with that.

There are also many other individuals who make an appearance here, despite the very author-centric tone. Celebrities and people of renown, and in general, individuals of great personal achievement and growth.

A selection of photographs marking the author’s journey has been included towards the end of the book, and they make for an interesting collage. The book is illustrated as well with full-page black and white images that mark different stages in the text.

Overall, this is an intriguing read. It is hard to classify where this book falls, for it is somewhere between a memoir and a self-explorative, self-help guide to various diets, alternative healing techniques, and tips. It could have used some more comprehensive analysis, particularly with the range of topics it attempts to cover. And yet it does help that the quoted texts and therapies have their sources acknowledged, and the author does explore some lesser-known techniques and ideas in detail.