Monica Bedi disowned by her ancestral village
Ajay Bharadwaj
Sunday, November 20, 2005 22:53 IST
CHHABEWAL (Hoshiarpur): Former cine star Monica Bedi has indeed
cast a spell on her native village. Seven years back ago when
she visited, the villagers rejoiced at her celebrity status, took
proud in the manner her career had catapulted from a simple shy
girl to a budding Bollywood star. But today they would rather
not talk about her.
"We do not know anything about them", is a cryptic
reply you get the moment you start talking about the Bedi family.
"She has brought bad name to the village, what do you expect
us to talk about", says Amarjit Kaur, the village sarpanch.
Her uncle, Purshottam Lal, has locked the main gate of the house
that he shares with Monica's father Prem Kumar Bedi, to ward off
inquiries from media persons. Her aunt, Kanta, who lived next
door, has left the village.
Gurmail Singh Gill, a former soccer player, who was instrumental
in helping Monica's father, Prem Kumar, migrate to Norway, firmly
turns down all queries to shed any light on the life of the Bedi
family in Norway.
Instead the villagers have started hunting for the video clippings
recorded seven years ago when Monica visited the village to take
part in her brother, Bobby's wedding. They want to confirm if
Abu Salem also accompanied Monica, along with hordes of other
people who came in from Mumbai for the wedding.
The entire village had disowned her three years ago when she
was arrested along with Abu Salem, said Avtar Singh, a shopkeeper.
"She has brought ignominy not only to the village but to
her family as well which has the lineage of the Sikh Gurus, who
were mostly Bedis", he said.
"It's is not just that she married a Muslim, but a terrorist
at that", he added contemptuously. He dismissed Monica's
denial about her marriage with Salem as trash and recalled a conversation
with a friend, Kulbir Singh, who is also in Norway, in which Monica's
father reportedly introduced Abu Salem to his guests as his son-in-law
who had a business of pearls and jewels in Mumbai. He said all
NRIs in Norway knew that Abu Salem frequented Monica's place quite
often.
