Jaipur: Wave of grief for Deepa Sharma, who lived & died in lap of nature

JAIPUR: She found joy in the lap of nature and the freedom to open a window to her soul on social media. In hindsight, Deepa Sharma’s pinned tweet had a prophetic ring to it, “I am not a IAS/IPS, IIM, Ivy League school pass out, any celebrity or any politician, but I am confident. In few years, people will know my name very well for my good work and my professional attributes for our Nation and for #WomenEmpowerment.”
A day after her death in the landslide in Himachal’s Kinnaur that killed eight other tourists on Sunday, the Jaipur-based Ayurveda practitioner’s life was celebrated as much as her passing was mourned by 22.4k Twitter followers and thousands of others moved by the tragedy. Deepa, 34, had bought a DSLR and a new mobile just ahead of the solo trip so she could indulge in her passion for nature photography and document every little detail for her website drdeepasharma.com.

“She was planning to celebrate her 35th birthday on July 29 at Spiti,” said Deepa's sister-in-law Kavita Sharma as the family waited in Delhi on Monday for the body to arrive.
Actor Kangana Ranaut, whom Deepa had met more than a couple of times, was among those who paid tributes. “She was a great fan, she sent me lovely letters and showered me with gifts and sweets...also visited my house in Manali... Oh !!! Seems like a big jolt… This is beyond tragic... Oh, God!!!" she wrote.
Those close to Deepa recalled her as a vivacious, independent and fiercely opinionated person on women's issues, politics and society. During the peak of the pandemic, she would help whoever was in distress in every way she could, her family and friends said.
“Besides being a good photographer, her Hindi poetry was evocative. She once wrote, ‘Zindagi kisey kehte hain jo waqt ke saath behti jaaye ya jisse waqt baha le jaaye (Life is what flows with time or what time washes away)'. Time has indeed taken her away,” said a friend from her Shanti Nagar neighbourhood.
Deepa's penultimate tweet was, “Life is nothing without Mother Nature”. Moments before nature unleashed her fury the next day, she posted what would be the final picture, showing her next to a signboard of the Indo Tibetan Border Police Force and “standing at the last point of India where civilians are allowed”. She would have wanted people to “know my name” in some other way.