Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Book Review: timepass by Protima Bedi

[[videos added on 20-Jul-17]]

Books are interesting. Arguably not the best way to start a paragraph. But even the dullest books can be interesting. Fat, small, verbose, brief, any genre.....blah blah blah. Books are interesting, ashte!!!

Take this book that I just finished reading: 'timepass: the memoirs of Protima Bedi'. The lady in question is of course the ex-wife of Kabir Bedi + one of the most famous of modern Indian classical dancers (of the Odissi style).

A woman who
· Was born into a dysfunctional family (aren’t we all) (and incidentally went on to create her own; dysfunctional family I mean)
· Was repeatedly raped by a cousin at the age of 9
· Had a mildly rebellious childhood
· Gave full rein to her sexuality once it sprouted
· Slept with countless men
· Turned to modelling (on the sly, away from her parents traditional gaze)
· Met Kabir bedi, ran away from home and started a live-in relationship with him, Slept with other men, Married Kabir Bedi, Slept with some other men, Divorced Kabir Bedi, Slept with still other men
· Found a purpose (?) in life when she met her guru, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and fell in love with the Odissi style of classical Indian dancing
· Became one of the most acclaimed Indian Classical Odissi dancers within a surprisingly short time
· Raised a unique dancing school, Nrityagram teaching multiple dancing disciplines and made it into a premier institution
· Paid scarce attention to the feelings of families when she slept with the man of the house (or is this oversimplifying it)?
· took sanyas (not exactly in the traditional way).
· Died in a landslide in the arms of the Himalayas while on a pilgrimage……….the body was never recovered.
· And incidentally, (as a sort of fill-in-the-blanks) along the way raised 2 kids, a girl and a boy. Sadly, the boy Siddharth became schizophrenic as a youngster and committed suicide

Truly, how many lifetimes has this lady lived within this lifetime!! It would have been tough to have this lady as a mother, as a wife, daughter, lover, colleague and all that. But I salute this lady’s spirit.

And to her daughter’s (Pooja Bedi Ebrahim) spirit too. A daughter who in her moment of lucidity had remarked to her mother “Why are you always running away? You ran away from your mother and father, you ran away from your husband, then you ran away from us, your children, and now you’re running away to Nrityagram. Why?” And she happened to run away from Nrityagram too.


Siddharth’s touching suicide note read

Well, this is it.

Please don’t feel any ‘guilt’ at this. Its my way of taking control and opting out and, strange as it may seem, I’m going happy, not sad.

I did not get to explore the other side. If there is a rebirth, I hope I come back with the faculties to be a technical genius. The times that we live in are so exciting.

I’m sure there’ll be some anger on your sides…but I hope it passes soon.

Booie, keep smiling…huska huska huska…good luck with the baby.

Mum, I love you the most of all…big kisses on your fat cheeks…please don’t be angry.

Love to all.

Siddharth

Technicalities:
There’s a check for $1,000 for death-related expenses.

I don’t want to be buried in India-bury me here, cremate me here or cremate me in India but don’t bury me in India. Something in my sensibility doesn’t want my body to be lying in India.


Resources
http://www.nrityagram.org/index.htm seems to be a delightful website













1 comment:

Pesto Sauce said...

She was one of a kind, I am dying to read this work