Protima Bedi was a great Indian dancer of odissi - one of the eight classical dance forms of India. During the years of hard work she established "Nrityagram" - India's first modern Gurukul (residential school) for Indian classical dances and an intentional community in the form of a dance village.
Background
Protima Bedi was born on 12 October 1948 in Delhi. Her family was rather big: she had two sisters and a brother. Her father Laxmichand Gupta, who was a trader, belonged to a Bania family and her mother Reba, was a Bengali. During Protima's childhood her family moved in different towns for several times. At age nine, she was sent to stay at her aunt's, in a village in Karnal district for a while, where she studied in a local school. On her return, she continued the education.
During her modelling days, Bedi met Kabir Bedi. And after a few months, she walked out of her parents' house to live with him. She married Kabir in 1969 and had two children - Pooja Bedi and Siddharth Bedi.
Career
By the late 1960s, Protima was a prominent model. But when she was 26, she ran into the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute by chance, and saw two young dancers giving an Odissi performance. That case changed her life. She became a student of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra from whom she learnt the art of dancing for 12 to 14 hours a day and faced a lot of hardship as a beginner. To her dance was a way of life. She proved to be an excellent learner. Some time later she started studying abhinaya from Guru Kalanidhi Narayan of Madras. From then on, she started giving performances all over the country.
However, Protima's son Siddarth who was suffering from schizophrenia, committed suicide in July 1997. This changed the course of her life. In 1998 she announced her retirement and started travelling in the Himalayan region.