In 1953, her family moved to Goa, and later to Bombay, where she received much of education, including college education, at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. She had become a prominent model by late 1960s. In 1974, she came into news for streaking during the daytime near Juhu Beach in Bombay. It was during her wild modelling days that she met Kabir Bedi. Within a few months of their meeting, she walked out of her parents’ house to live with him. They got married in 1969 and had two children – Pooja, who took acting for a brief while and a son, Siddharth.

Dance

In August 1975, at the age of 26, an Odissi dance recital completely changed her life when she ran into the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute by chance, and saw two young dancers giving an Odissi performance. It filled her with a kind of passion she’d never known before, in spite of its extremely complex rhythms, patterns and sophisticated hand-and-eye gestures. 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. She transformed herself from being the tight trouser, halter neck, off-shoulder girl with gold streaked hair to Protima Gauri, later as Gauri Amma or Gauri Maa, as she was affectionately known amongst her students.

This is a classic saree; midsized zari border and transparent chiffon. A must have kind of saree for your wardrobe.

Pick the color that you like – actually I take that back – pick the color that makes you look the best and get a saree with a midsized silver border. Have three blouses made; the first one is plain, same color as the saree, the second a silver blouse and third a halter top with brown and silver.

Then you can pick which one to wear depending on the occasion. Match with with dangling earrings and you are ready to conquer the world.

I also want to come back to this issue of the difference between the colors that you like and the colors that look good on you. A beautiful friend of mine had an unnatural liking for brown. Take her to a saree shop, show her 1000 sarees and she will pick the brown one. Except that the brown didn’t look too good on her. She looked so much better in lighter colors. A video clip of her in a lighter color saree is what convinced her that that there is comfort color, that is brown for her and another color that brings out the best in her.

Click for a better view.

A classic (to the extent tradtional sarees with contrasting blouse are classic) saree for Ria – nothing else will do!

Considering that she wears so little, this must have been a major stretch for her.