Protima Gauri Bedi (12 October 1948 – 18 August 1998) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

model who later became an

Odissi dancer ''Odissi'' (''ଓଡ଼ିଶୀ'') also referred to as ''Orissi'' in old literature, oldest surviving classical dance of India, is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originated in the temples of Odisha – an eastern coastal state ...

. In 1990, she initially founded Nrityagram, a

dance school A dance studio is a space in which dancers learn or rehearse. The term is typically used to describe a space that has either been built or equipped for the purpose. Overview A dance studio normally includes a smooth floor covering or, if used ...

near

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

Early life

Protima was born in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

on 12 October 1948,''Time Pass: The Memoirs of Protima Bedi'', Introduction, pp. 1–2. Biographical info: "Early Years" the second of four children, three daughters, and a son. Her father, Laxmichand Gupta, was a trader from a business family in

Karnal district Karnal district is one of the 22 Districts of Haryana, districts of Haryana, a state in North India which constitutes the National Capital Region (NCR) of the country. The city of Karnal is a part of the National Capital Region (India), Nation ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

, and her mother, Reba, was of

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

origin. In 1953, her family moved to

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. In 1957, they relocated to

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. At the age of nine, she was sent to live with her aunt in a village in

, where she briefly attended a local school. Upon returning, she was enrolled at

Kimmins High School Kimmins High School is a girls' boarding school in Panchgani in the state of Maharashtra, India, founded in 1898. It was founded as the "sister" school of Queen Mary School, Mumbai, providing boarding school capability for girls who could not at ...

Panchgani Panchgani, called Paachgani, is a hill station and municipal council in Satara district in Maharashtra, India. Panchgani attracts tourists throughout the year. It is also known for having many convent boarding schools. Panchgani is around 108 ...

, where she completed her early education. She later attended

St. Xavier's College, Mumbai St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic Church, Catholic, institution of higher education run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on 2 January 1869. The college is ...

, from 1965 to 1967.

Career

Modeling career

By the late 1960s, she had started working as a model. In 1974, she streaked during the daytime at

Juhu Beach Juhu (Pronunciation: ͡ʒuɦuː is a suburb of Mumbai. It is known for the sprawling Juhu Beach. It is surrounded by the Arabian Sea to the west, Versova to the north, Vile Parle to the east and Santacruz to the south. Juhu is among the most ...

for the launch of the

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

magazine ''

Cineblitz ''Cine Blitz'' is a Hindi and English film magazine published every month from Mumbai about Bollywood, Hindi cinema. Started in December 1974, as of 2006, it was one of the top three film magazines in India. Currently ''Cine Blitz'' belongs to ...

''.

Dance career

In August 1975, at the age of 26, her viewing of an

Odissi dance ''Odissi'' (''ଓଡ଼ିଶୀ'') also referred to as ''Orissi'' in old literature, oldest surviving classical dance of India, is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originated in the Hindu temple, temples of Odisha – an eastern ...

recital inspired her to become a student of Guru

Kelucharan Mohapatra Kelucharan Mohapatra (8 January 1926 – 7 April 2004) was a legendary Indian classical dancer, guru, and exponent of Odissi dance, who is credited with the revival and popularizing of this classical dance form in the 20th century. He is ...

. Under the Guru's tutelage, she learned to dance. To improve her dancing skills, she started studying

abhinaya Abhinaya (Sanskrit ''abhi-'' 'towards' + ''nii-'' 'leading/guide') is the art of expression in Indian aesthetics. More accurately it means "leading an audience towards" the experience (') of a sentiment ('). The concept, derived from Bh ...

from Guru

Kalanidhi Narayanan Kalanidhi Narayanan (7 December 1928 – 21 February 2016) was an Indian dancer and teacher of Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam, who was the early non-devadasi girl to learn the dance form and perform it on stage in the 1930s and 1940 ...

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

. From then on, she began giving performances around the country. Around the same time, Protima started her dance school at

Prithvi Theatre Prithvi Theatre is a Theater (structure), theatre located in the upscale neighbourhood of Juhu, Mumbai. Prithviraj Kapoor the spearhead of one of the most influential actor and director families in Bollywood, the Kapoor family, founded the trave ...

Juhu Juhu (Pronunciation: ͡ʒuɦuː is a suburb of Mumbai. It is known for the sprawling Juhu Beach. It is surrounded by the Arabian Sea to the west, Versova to the north, Vile Parle to the east and Santacruz to the south. Juhu is among the most ...

, Mumbai. It later became the Odissi Dance Centre.

Nrityagram

In 1989, Protima started building Nrityagram, situated on the outskirts of Bangalore. It became India's first free dance

gurukul A () is a traditional system of religious education in India with ('students' or 'disciples') living near or with the guru in the same house for a period of time where they learn and get educated by their guruji. Etymology The word is a comb ...

village for various Indian classical dances, consisting of seven gurukuls for the seven classical dance styles and two martial arts forms, Chhau and

Kalaripayattu Kalaripayattu (), also known simply as Kalari, is an Indian martial art that originated on the southwestern coast of India, in what is now Kerala, during the 3rd century BCE. Etymology Kalaripayattu is a martial art which developed out of co ...

. Nrityagram was inaugurated on 11 May 1990 by the then-Prime Minister,

V.P. Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008) was an Indian politician who served as the prime minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the Raja Bahadur of Manda. He was educated at Allahabad University and Fergusson College in ...

. The dance school has a small community of Indian students learning

Indian classical dance Indian classical dance, or ''Shastriya Nritya'', is an umbrella term for different regionally-specific Indian classical dance traditions, rooted in predominantly Hindu musical theatre performance,, Quote: All of the dances considered to be part ...

. Meanwhile, in 1992, Protima appeared in

Pamela Rooks Pamela Rooks (28 February 1958 – 1 October 2010) was an Indian film director and screenwriter, most known for the film, '' Train to Pakistan'' (1998) set in Partition of India and based on Khushwant Singh's novel; it was screened at several ...

's English film, ''

Miss Beatty's Children ''Miss Beatty's Children'' is a 1992 English-language Indian drama film directed by Pamela Rooks in her directorial debut, with Jenny Seagrove, Faith Brook and Protima Bedi in lead roles. The film set in 1936 in South India, was based on Rook ...

''. Nrityagram was designed by architect

Gerard da Cunha Gerard da Cunha (born 10 February 1955) is an Indian architect based in Goa, India. He is the founder and principal architect of the architecture firm Architecture Autonomous. An alumnus of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, he i ...

. It won the Best Rural Architecture award in 1991. To raise funds to run Nrityagram, a tourist resort, Kuteeram was built in 1992. Nrityagram is also the venue of the annual dance festival

Vasanta Habba Vasanta Habba (), which means ''spring festival'' in the Kannada language, is a cultural festival organised by the Nrityagram foundation in the city of Bangalore, India. It is a very popular event and is considered the classical Woodstock of Indi ...

, which first began in 1994 and attracted 40,000 visitors when it was last held in 2004. It was not held from 2005 to 2007 due to the aftermath of the

2004 tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the scient ...

and a shortage of funds.

Final years

Protima's son, Siddarth, suffered from

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

and committed suicide in July 1997 while he was studying in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. This caused her to announce her

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

and change her name to Protima Gauri. Soon, she started traveling in the Himalayan region. In a newspaper interview given in April 1998, while camping at

Rishikesh Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in the Indian state Uttarakhand. The northern part of Rishikesh is in the Dehradun district while the southern part is in the Tehri Garhwal district. It is situated on the right bank ...

during the

Kumbh Mela Kumbh Mela (, ; ) is an important Hinduism, Hindu pilgrimage, celebrated approximately every 6 or 12 years, correlated with the partial or full orbital period, revolution of Jupiter. It is the largest peaceful gathering of people in the w ...

, she stated that she had decided to surrender herself to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

, expressing that it was the call of the mountains that had drawn her in and she also speculated about the outcome of this journey, believing that whatever lay ahead was certain to be something positive. Subsequently, in August 1998, Protima Gauri set off on her pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar. She died in the Malpa landslide, near

Pithoragarh Pithoragarh ( Kumaoni: ''Pithor'garh'') is a Himalayan town with a Municipal corporation in Pithoragarh district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the largest hill town in Uttarakhand. Etymology "The district is named after its hea ...

. Her remains and belongings were recovered after several days, along with seven other bodies found in the landslide. The book ''Timepass'' is derived from Protima's journals and letters, compiled and published by her daughter,

Pooja Bedi Pooja Bedi (born 11 May 1970) is an Indian actress, television talk show host and newspaper columnist. She is the daughter of Indian actors Kabir Bedi and Protima Bedi. She appeared in the reality television shows '' Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa'', '' N ...

, in 1999. It gives an account of Protima's relationships and lifestyle, the birth of her dream project, Nrityagram, and her eventual transition into a

sanyasin ''Sannyasa'' (), sometimes spelled ''sanyasa'', is the fourth stage within the Hindu system of four life stages known as '' ashramas'', the first three being ''brahmacharya'' (celibate student), ''grihastha'' (householder) and ''vanaprastha'' ...

towards the end of her life, when she retired from public life and wanted to explore the Himalayas.

Personal life

Protima met

Kabir Bedi Kabir Bedi (born 16 January 1946) is an Indian actor. His career has spanned three continents covering India, the United States and especially Italy among other Western countries in three media: film, television and theatre. He is noted for his ...

during her modelling career. After a few months, she left her parents' house to live with him. She married Kabir and had two children, including

. They separated in 1974.

Notes

References

* ''Time Pass: The Memoirs of Protima Bedi'', with Pooja Bedi Ebrahim. New Delhi, Penguin, 2000. .

External links

*
An Interview with Protima Gauri

Special feature on Protima Bedi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedi, Protima 1948 births 1998 deaths Bedi Protima Deaths in landslides St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni Odissi exponents Indian female classical dancers Bengali models Indian Hindus Dancers from Delhi 20th-century Indian dancers Women artists from Delhi 20th-century Indian women artists Natural disaster deaths in India