The travails of the Dutt family revealed in a book

Sisters Priya, Namrata and brother Sanjay Dutt have put together the memoirs of their parents – Sunil Dutt and Nargis – in an upcoming book titled 'Mr and Mrs Dutt : Memories of our Parents'.The book, to be released by Roli Books later this month, also contains many letters written by the late Nargis Dutt. It also recounts the hard times the entire family went through after the untimely demise of Nargis.
In a letter written during her cancer treatment in US, Nargis Dutt spoke about the fear and pain of the realisation that she might just have to leave her family behind forever. An excerpt from the letter reads: "I am in such a mental condition, I have gone far away from all of you, and I don't know what is going to happen but I have faith in God, he is not going to be so cruel as to not send me back to all of you. I know how much all of you love me, keep praying for me that all will be well with me." In the letter, Nargis also expressed concern about Sanjay Dutt, then just a boy."Please look after Sanju, see that he does not get mixed up with those silly boys again. He is too stupid in his head, he does not realise what he is doing and know it is going to hurt him," Nargis wrote to Namrata.Sanjay has often talked about the trauma that the family had undergone because of the demise of Nargis and how he turned to drugs to overcome his grief, but his elder sister Namrata provides much deeper insights into how the family reacted after Nargis' death. She writes, "Dad was devastated. He couldn't sleep in their bedroom any more. We volunteered to sleep in the same room as he did, but he'd wake up in the middle of the night and leave. In a panic, we'd get up and look for him, only to discover he was lying on the sofa in the living room, having fallen asleep again. Sometimes he would go to the graveyard at four in the morning and just sit by Mom's grave. Finally we realized we had to act maturely and be strong for him. He must have felt completely alone. He must have wondered, "What am I going to do with these three children? There's no one to share my life. No one I can talk to." He had shared everything with Mom. His work, his life, everything, and now she had gone," says Namrata in the book. She adds, "Priya and I gradually took over the running of the house. I had never entered the kitchen before, and now had to take charge. Fortunately we had a cook and staff who lived on the premises, and so the house began to function again. But the ordeal of the past few years caught up with Dad. He was overwhelmed with grief. He was unable to work or sleep. He was falling apart. Nothing made sense to him any longer. He had tried to save Mom, but failed. All the statues and images of gods and goddesses were removed from the house and immersed in the flowing seawater. We were angry with God. How could He have done this to us?"