Jerry Hall's spirit ready to shoot in India

NEW DELHI: Jerry Hall first came to India at 18 on a modelling assignment, and says she bought in to the whole India myth. "I remember lying in bed practising this breathing meditation technique until I was blue in the face, and thinking I was going to die" she laughs, 30 years later, in her suite at a spa near Rishikesh.Thirty years is a long time, and so much has happened for this lanky blonde since then: a career as a supermodel, marriage for 23 years and then divorce from rock legend Mick Jagger, four children, and a near-brush with tragedy that has brought her back to India, almost full circle."My twin sister had breast cancer," she says, her open and honest face turning momentarily sad. "And to help her through very drastic chemo, we began to explore all the alternative healings we could find. Fortunately she recovered." But through their search Jerry met Deepak Chopra, the prime exporter of Indian spirituality.The seed had been planted, it took its natural course: Aryuvedic treatments ("They pour oil on your forehead - better than Botox - removes all the wrinkles"), meditations, massages, spiritual seminars, even Rumi''s couplets. That whole grab bag of modern day fix-it spirituality, which a particular type of individual seeks out at a particular time of life. Besides the glamour and the glitz, Jerry''s life has not been easy.Marriage to Mick, whom she refers to affectionately as "a great Dionysian Figure", and alternatively as "a naughty child", must have been a full-time career."After a while it began to hurt, to live with a compulsive womaniser, someone who obviously has a big spiritual hole, which needs filling with women, drugs whatever. And it was not a good example for the kids either."So with dignity, a great deal of chutzpah, and her characteristic open spirit, she eschewed the ladies-who-lunch option, instead repositioning herself as an actress (six plays including The Graduate soon to open in America), spiritual seeker, and television personality. "I was not going to live the rest of my life as somebody''s ex," she says.

TOI

Jerry Hall's spirit ready to shoot in India