1997 |
| June
13, 1997 |
After
having suffered a mild stroke, Protima Bedi officially resigns
from managing
the affairs of her village Nrityagram. |
| July 10, 1997 |
Protima Bedi formally
hands over Nrityagram to new manager Lynne Fernandez who has
already helped
her and the village for two years as Protima Bedi was feeling unwell.
Protima Bedi plans to go to Varanasi, find a Guru and study the Samved. |
| July 19, 1997 |
Kabir Bedi's first-born
son Siddharth suddenly dies at age 25 in Los Angeles. Having
been diagnosed with
schizophrenia earlier, he writes in a final letter that
he does not want to live with his illness any longer and takes
his
own life.
Although Siddharth Bedi's death is sometimes attributed to "drug-related
causes", newspaper reports at the time as well as comments
by both his parents have made it clear that this is inaccurate. |
| late summer
1997 |
According to news
reports of July 17 and August 8, Kabir Bedi is to be a grandfather:
His daughter
Pooja Bedi, married to Farheen Ibrahim 'Furniturewalla', who's
in the furniture business, is expecting her first child.
Pooja Bedi, once one of the highest paid models of India (she
also appeared in a controversial ad campaign for Indian condom
brand
Kamasutra)
and an actress, she has now become a successful interior decorator
in India.
For example, she decorated nine cottages of the Kuteeram Retreat
Hotel in Hessaraghatta (opposite Protima Bedi's dance village
Nrityagram,
Bangalore).
This nine-acre resort was owned by Protima Bedi and belongs since
May 1997 to the luxury Star Hotels/Taj Group.
The cottages were designed by star architect Gerard da Cunha. |
| August 15,
1997 |
Kabir Bedi is scheduled
to attend a NFIA banquet at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington
DC, USA.
The National Federation of Indian-American Associations has organised
this banquet to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of India's independence. |
| October 1997 |
Kabir Bedi is a scheduled
speaker at a conference organised by the IAAA (Indo-American
Alumni
Association). |
| November 10,
1997 |
CNN reports that the
American sitcom The Bold & The Beautiful has
paid a visit to Lake Como in Northern Italy. Apparently it was
the biggest foreign location shoot ever done by an American
daytime
TV soap. B&B celebrated its 10th anniversary and its huge popularity
in Italy, where it's called Beautiful.
Shortly afterwards, an Italian website mentioned Kabir Bedi
in connection with this event (now offline). |
| November
28, 1997 |
Kabir Bedi has become
a first-time grandfather today:
Pooja's and Farheen Ibrahim's first child, daughter Aalija, is
born. The name is sometimes spelt Aalia or Aaliya.
Along with Pooja's husband Farhan, stepmother Nikki and Pooja's
best friend, her mother Protima is also right beside her daughter
in the delivery room.
Protima Bedi spends a month with Pooja and her new-born baby in
Bombay. |
|
1998 |
| March
1998 |
Kabir
and Nikki Bedi move to Great Britain. First, they settle in
Hampshire, near
Nikki Bedi's family. They move to London in early 1998. |
| April 1998 |
According to an interview
article in India Today, Protima Bedi now dresses in blue and
purple robes
in the style of a Buddhist monk. Her head is clean-shaven, her
eyebrows tattooed and she is ready to retreat to the Himalayas
where she
wants to spend the rest of her life.
In Protima Bedi's own words: "The time has come for me to
forget my past and live a future that even I am unaware of." |
| June 1998 |
To help promote Nrityagram,
Protima Bedi tours the US with her Odissi dance ensemble from
Bangalore,
earning rave reviews of the mainstream media. |
| August 17,
1998 |
Kabir Bedi happens
to be staying in Bombay when Protima Bedi suddenly dies in a
natural disaster
while travelling on a pilgrimage to Mansarovar.
Several groups of pilgrims were headed across the Chinese border
in Tibet towards the sacred mountain Kailash.
According to Indian mythology, Kailash Mansarovar is the abode of
Lord Shiva, the god of gods.
Protima Bedi is said to have been on her way to the sacred Lake
Mansarovar at the foot of Kailash.
She is one of more than 200 people killed around 3am in a massive
landslide caused by heavy rains in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
According to newspapers, her body is found - days later - near Malpa,
a completely flattened village (altitude: 2.275m) in a narrow mountain
valley, about 60 km from Dharchula, in Pithoragarh. |
| August 19,
1998 |
Within days, another
woman with whom Kabir Bedi is befriended since many years, former
Miss
India (1965) and model turned actress Persis Khambatta (born 1948),
also dies, 49 years old. She is said to have been suffering
from
a heart ailment for over ten years.
Kabir Bedi attends her funeral at the Parsi Towers of Silence at
Malabar Hill, Mumbai, in the morning. The same day Kabir Bedi leaves
for Delhi where
he hopes to hear news on Protima. |
| August 30,
1998 |
Kabir Bedi joins his
daughter Pooja, her husband Farheen and Alyque Padamsee, among
others,
at
a Shradhanjali for Protima Gauri Bedi at the Versova residence
in Bombay. |
around
September 2, 1998 |
Kabir Bedi is filming
Il Figlio di Sandokan (The Son of Sandokan)
on location in Sri Lanka - at an industrial warehouse in Pallekele,
off Kandy. |
| September
5, 1998 |
Kabir Bedi sends a
message to be read at a concert in Tirana, Albania, to mark the
first
anniversary
of Mother Teresa's death. Mother Teresa was of Albanian origin.
Anna Oxa, the Italian-Albanian singer, has initiated this concert.
It takes place in the "Paul VI" hall of the foundation
"The Lady of Good Conseil". Italian musicians/singers,
among them Ivana Spagna, Katia Ricciarelli and Amadeo Minghi participate
and there is also an address from Ivan Dias, the Apostolic Nuncio
in Albania.
Apart from Kabir Bedi, other personalities from art, culture and
politics have sent messages. Among them Antonia Banderas, Yasser
Arafat
and
the mayors of Rome and Milan. |
shortly before
September 8, 1998 |
While in Rome, along
with film star Ben Kingsley and the Argentinian model Valeria
Mazza,
Kabir Bedi is granted an audience with the Pope.
The three celebrities were recording a TV program at the Vatican
about Mother Teresa, who died a year ago. |
| October 23,
1998 |
Kabir and Nikki Bedi
are back in Bombay for a few days and have invited some friends
at the
Versova penthouse apartment of Pooja and Farheen. |
around
December 5, 1998 |
Kabir and his wife
Nikki Bedi are among celebrity guests at a fundraising screening
of director
Pamela Rooks' film "Train To Pakistan", based on Khushwant
Singh's novel about the Partition, at the Bloomsbury Theatre in
London, organised by Mrs. Surina Narula, a well-known charity fund-raiser,
who heads the International Childcare Trust.
This particular event was to raise money for a hospital in Lahore
and for deprived street children in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. |
|
1999 |
| January
8, 1999 |
The Nrityagram
Dance Ensemble from Bangalore performs the lyrical Odissi dance
at the Kaye Playhouse in Manhattan, New York.
The program is dedicated to Nrityagram's founder and dancer Protima
Gauri Bedi.
The repeat visit of the dance troupe, sadly now without Protima,
was in part made possible by support from the National Endowment
for the Arts and also the New York State Council on the Arts.
The five dancers who are the first batch of graduates from Nrityagram
have given more than 400 performances. |
shortly before
January 16, 1999 |
Pooja Bedi models
a gold-and-diamond jewellery set to be sold at an Aids charity
auction held at
the
Hyatt's Regency Ballroom in Delhi. US ambassador Richard Celeste
makes a speech but he and his wife, Jacqueline Lundquist, leave
early. Attendance at the event falls short of expectations. |
| January 16,
1999 |
Musician Vishwa Mohan
Bhatt, a Grammy Award winner, pays tribute to Kabir Bedi's ex-wife,
the
late Odissi dancer Protima Gauri Bedi, by creating a raga called
Raga Gaurima, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Protima's
birth (October 12, 1949). The raga is meant to represent her charismatic
personality. |
| January 17,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi is master
of ceremony and jury member at the grand finale of an Indian
beauty
pageant, sponsored by Palmolive, at the auditorium in Poona, where
a Femina Miss India Universe '98 (Gul Panag, 20), a Femina Miss
India World (Yukta Mookhey, 20) and a Femina Miss India Asia Pacific
(Shivangi Parikh, 20) are chosen among 29 contestants. Anil
Ambani
orders a birthday cake for Kabir Bedi, the birthday boy (January
16, 1946), who currently
"has his hands in many pies" as an Indian phrase goes... |
| February 8,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi is writing
a book about his life, according to Indian news sources.
Pooja Bedi is working on a book called "Timepass", based
on letters from and to her mother Protima Bedi. |
| February 22,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi is back
in Mumbai to participate in select commercial ventures and to
retain
his links
with India. His current projects in England include writing his
autobiography, a review of the Indi pop scene for British TV
Channel
Four and working on a Hindi version of Sandokan
for Indian TV Star Plus.
Kabir Bedi's son Adam, who likes to play chess, stays with him
and Nikki in their London home. |
| April 25,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi is reported
to be shooting the movie Kohram, also starring
Amitabh Bachchan and Nana Patekar, who will probably play Colonel
respectively Major,
both subordinate ranks to his Brigadier. |
| May 17, 1999 |
Pooja Bedi plans to
include some controversial photographs into the memoirs of her
late
mother
Protima.
The photographs were taken in the early 1970s, when Protima
'streaked' in India.
While Pooja would like to show her mother as the unconventional,
daring and free spirit she was, Kabir Bedi is reported to find
the photos
in bad taste and tries to persuade his daughter to drop her plans. |
| July 8, 1999 |
The first copy of
Kabir Bedi's new movie, Kohram, is out at Indian
Adlabs. He is mentioned in the credits as "special appearance
by Kabir Bedi". |
| August 28/29,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi is scheduled
to participate in Rockin' For Freedom, a live 24-hour event
of GlobaLink
Television, to raise awareness and money for humanitarian causes.
Performances are planned in several places around the world, including
London, South Africa, Sydney, Delhi and the US (at the former Anaheim
Stadium).
The concert will be broadcast via satellite, a radio and Internet
simulcast, cable networks, direct TV and other network outlets to
an expected worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
This event apparently never went ahead. |
| August 29,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi is a guest
of honour and president of the jury at the contest "Miss
Italia Nel Mondo 1999 / Miss Italy In The World 1999", held
at Salsomaggiore Terme (Parma), near Bologna in central Italy.
The contest was won
by an Ethiopian girl, Ambra Gulle. This beauty pageant is intended
for contestants with Italian origins around the world. It
is a forerunner
for the Miss Italy contest scheduled September 5, 1999. |
| September
10, 1999 |
Kabir Bedi is voted
2nd most successful movie star outside India. He gets 39% of
all
votes
in an online survey conducted by Filmfare, India Times.
Among the six contestants are well-known stars like Saeed Jaffrey,
Persis Khambatta and Om Puri.
Amrish Puri is elected as most successful star, 44% of votes. |
| September
16, 1999 |
Today, Kabir Bedi
participates in the 6th World Hindi Conference, a five-day event
(September
14-19)
in London.
Together with wife Nikki he attends a gala dinner at India House
and is seen in the company of director/actor Shekhar Kapoor, actress
Madeleine Porter, movie director Ismail Merchant, journalist Narendra
Mohan and Vasundhara Raje, India's foreign minister.
Other movie personalities, among
them Bhupen Hazarika, also attend the conference. Hindi-spoken movies
can contribute largely to promoting this language throughout the
world.
Of the more than 600 movies now in the 1990s made in India every year, those
in Hindi and made in "Bollywood" account only for a small proportion.
Most Indian movies are made in the four main Southern languages: Telugu, Tamil,
Malayalam and Kannada.
On September 14, India's Prime Minister,
Atal Behari Vajpayee, makes a televised address to 2,000 people in the Wembley
Conference Centre, North London, paying tribute to Hindi on the 50th anniversary
of its recognition as India's official language.
One of 18 languages recognised by the Indian constitution and most widely spoken
in the densely populated north of India, it is now used by nearly 500 million
people worldwide.
Hindi is derived from Sanskrit and belongs to the Indo-European language group.
The issue of a special silver coin commemorates the 600th anniversary of the
birth of 14th century poet Kabir at this conference.
Mahendra Verma, the World
Hindi Conference President, makes a plea for a centre in Britain for the development
of Hindi.
The conference is held for the first time in Britain and was previously held
in Trinidad in 1996. |
| September
18, 1999 |
Indian TV broadcasts
a commercial by household goods maker Godrej in which "Nikki
interviews Ms. Belgian Chocolate".
The commercial is handled by the HTA (Hindustan Thompson Associates)
Agency, Mumbai.
It appears to be a spoof reference to Nikki Bedi's stint as a Star
TV talk show host (Nikki Tonight) some years ago, in which one of
her guests caused a political storm by verbally attacking India's
Gandhi dynasty, Mahatma Gandhi in particular. |
| November 1999 |
Kabir Bedi will be
a grandfather for the second time:
Pooja Bedi has told the press she is five months pregnant. She
is busy helping her husband Farheen to set up his new show room.
There
will
also be an exhibition of metal work. |
| November 9,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi is presented
with the Maschera D'Argento in Rome by Danny Quinn, son of actor
Anthony Quinn. Other recipients of the award include singers Patty
Pravo and José Carreras. |
| November 19-21,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi attends
the Mega Mela (meaning Big Fair), a three-day festival of Asian
culture,
one of the biggest in Britain, held at the National Exhibition
Centre in Birmingham.
As Britain's Asian community has an estimated disposable income
of around 8 billion pounds, this event is sponsored by big corporate
brands like BBC, Tesco, John Lewis and Jaguar.
Bollywood stars, fashion designers, businesses, Asian chefs as well
as top Asian bands like Asian Dub Foundation, Apache Indian and
Junoon attract an expected crowd of 40,000 people, among them many
non-Asian visitors who are interested in other cultures. |
| November 20,
1999 |
On behalf of the BBC,
Kabir Bedi presents its most prestigious Special Lifetime Achievement
Award at the Mega Mela to Professor Bhikhu Parekh, one of the most
eminent Asian academics in Britain.
Kabir Bedi attends this evening ceremony first as a guest with
his family and then he is the last and special presenter of an
award.
The event
is hosted by popular comedian/actress Nina Wadia and Shanka Guha,
and will be broadcast by BBC TV a week later.
The BBC Asian Success Innovation and Achievement (ASIA) Awards
are taking place for the second time as part of the Mega Mela.
Parekh
has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Pennsylvania, Vienna,
McGill and Barcelona.
He has written more than a dozen widely-acclaimed books in political
philosophy and has been active in British public life since 1970.
He has been deputy chair of the Commission for Racial Equality
and is currently chairing the Commission of the Future of Multi-Ethnic
Britain.
Kabir Bedi says in his laudatio that Professor Parekh has brought
enormous distinction to the Asian community. |
| early December
1999 |
Kabir Bedi's two-year-old
granddaughter Aalija attends the Juhu center of Kangaroo Kids,
a
high-profile pre-school in Mumbai which endorses learning through
creative experience.
Pooja Bedi has taken her to their Gymbaroo Club (where mothers
attend together with their kids) since Aalija was one year old
to expose
her early on to music, drama and even computers. |
| December 22,
1999 |
Protima Bedi's autobiographical
book called Timepass, based on her diary entries, is published posthumously.
Pooja Bedi Ibrahim, Kabir and Protima's daughter, has edited her
mother's journals (she kept them since 1969), letters etc. after
her death.
The official book release event takes place on this evening at the
NCPA in Mumbai.
A 45-minute audio-visual is shown which features Protima Bedi herself
in interviews and there are also clips of close family and friends
speaking about their personal memories of Protima.
The book launch is followed by a cocktail soiree at the Sidewok
restaurant at the NCPA, next to the TATA theatre, due to be opened
officially on December 27.
Of course, Kabir Bedi is often mentioned in the book, although
reports from India say not all of the references are flattering.
When asked about this in interviews, Pooja Bedi explains that Protima's
comments about Kabir should be seen in the context of when they
were written. Pooja says her father has changed a lot since his
early twenties. Kabir Bedi does not attend the book launch in
India,
but stays in Britain.
A sneak preview of Pooja's/Protima's book reveals that it is illustrated
with more than fifty photographs, many of them to do with Kabir
Bedi,
of course, as he played such an important role for many years in
her life.
However, Protima Bedi was a free-spirited woman who had the courage
to live life entirely on her own terms - in a society which is
strongly
based on tradition - , making her a most fascinating person in
her own right.
!!! Read 'Timepass', this passionate memoir derived from Protima
Bedi's unfinished autobiography, journals and letters !!! |
| late 1999 |
Kabir Bedi's autobiographical
book will be published first on the European
market,
later in an Indian version. He intends to write also about his
relationships with women, notably his late ex-wife Protima and
his ex-wife Susan. |
| December 31,
1999 |
Kabir Bedi has been
suggested as a presenter at the finals of the "Miss Millennium
Pageant",
scheduled by the producers of "Miss Earth" to take
place today in India (?). More than 70 countries worldwide
are supposed
to have chosen their favourite during the second half of December
1999.
This event apparently never went ahead. |
|