Indian model and Odissi exponent
Protima Gauri Bedi[2][3] (12 October &#; 18 August )[4] was an Indian model turned Odissi exponent. In , she established Nrityagram, a dance school in Bangalore, Karnataka.
Protima was born in Delhi on 12 October ,[5] the second of four children, three daughters, and a son. Her father was Laxmichand Gupta, a trader belonging to a business family from the Karnal district, Haryana, and her mother Reba, was of Bengali by origin.[1]
In , her family moved to Goa, and later, in , they moved to Mumbai. At the age of nine, she was sent to stay at her aunt's home in a village in the Karnal district for a while, where she studied in a local school. On her return, she was sent to Kimmins High School, Panchgani, where she received her early education. She graduated from St. Xavier's College, Bombay (–67).[5]
By the late s, she started working as a model. In , she came into the news for streaking during the daytime at Juhu Beach in Mumbai for the launch of the Bollywood magazine Cineblitz.[6]
You have only to ready yourself to allow things to happen as they should. The greatest favour you can do yourself is to 'get out of your own way'.
- Protima Bedi, Timepass: Memoirs of Protima Bedi[5]
In August , at the age of 26, viewing an Odissi dance recital[7] changed her life, inspiring her to become a student of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Under the Guru's tutelage, she learned the art of dancing, practising for 12 to 14 hours a day.[8]
To hone her dancing skills, she started studying abhinaya from Guru Kalanidhi Narayanan of Madras. From then on, she began giving performances around the country. Around the same time, Protima started her dance school at Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, Mumbai. It later became the Odissi Dance Centre.
Main article: Nrityagram
In , Protima started building Nrityagram, situated on the outskirts of Bangalore. It became India's first free dance gurukul[9] village for various Indian classical dances, consisting of seven gurukuls for the seven classical dance styles and two martial arts forms, Chhau and Kalaripayattu.[10] Nrityagram was inaugurated on 11 May by the then-Prime Minister, V.P. Singh. The dance school has a small community of students from all parts of India, but with a common aim of learning Indian classical dance. Meanwhile, in , Protima appeared in Pamela Rooks's English film, Miss Beatty's Children.[11]
Nrityagram, created as a model dance village, was constructed by architect Gerard da Cunha. It won the Best Rural Architecture award in To raise funds to run Nrityagram, a tourist resort, Kuteeram was built in Nrityagram is also the venue of the annual dance festival Vasanta Habba, which first began in and attracted 40, visitors when it was last held in It was not held from to due to the aftermath of the tsunami and a shortage of funds.[12]
Protima's son, Siddarth, suffered from schizophrenia and committed suicide in July while he was studying in North Carolina.[13] This caused her to announce her retirement and change her name to Protima Gauri.[1] Soon, she started traveling in the Himalayan region.[14] In a newspaper interview given in April , while camping at Rishikesh during the Kumbh Mela, she said, "I have decided to give myself up to the Himalayas. It is the call of the mountains which has beckoned me to them. And who knows what may come out of it? It is bound to be something good."[15] Subsequently, in August , Protima Gauri set off on her pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar, and it was there that she disappeared after the Malpa landslide, near Pithoragarh,[16] in the Himalayas. 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, in It gives an account of Protima's relationships and lifestyle, the birth of her dream project, Nrityagram, and her eventual transition into a sanyasin towards the end of her life, when she retired from public life and wanted to explore the Himalayas.[17]
Protima met Kabir Bedi during her modelling career. After a few months, she left her parent's house to live with him. She married Kabir and had two children, including Pooja Bedi. They separated in [citation needed][18]