| Susham Bedi | |
|---|---|
Susham Bedi, Indian American Novelist, Actress, and Academic |
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| Born | July 1, 1945 Ferozpur, Punjab. India |
| Occupation | Novelist, Actress, Academic |
Susham Bedi (born July 1, 1945) is a leading South Asian (Indian) author of novels, short stories and poetry, currently living in the United States. She is a professor of Hindi language and literature at the department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) at Columbia University, New York. She writes predominantly about the experiences of Indians in the South Asian diaspora, focusing on psychological and 'interior' cultural conflicts. Unlike other prominent Indian American novelists she writes mainly in Hindi rather than in English. She has been widely translated into English, French, Dutch and other languages by artists, academics, and students.
She was an actress in India in the 1960s and early 1970s. More recently in the United States she has appeared on such shows as "True Crime: New York City", "Third Watch", and "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit", and in movies such as "The Guru" (2002) and "ABCD" (1999). She is the mother of the actress Purva Bedi.
In 2007 she was awarded 100,000 Rupees by Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan for her contributions to Hindi language and literature.
In January, 2006 she was honored by Sahitya Academy in Delhi for her contributions to Hindi literature.
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Susham Bedi began her writing career in high school and college, entering local competitions and writing articles and stories for magazines. She also worked as an actress and commentator on Indian television in the late-1960s and 1970s.
She attended Delhi University and Punjab University in India and taught Hindi literature. Her Ph.D. dissertation was published in 1984 as Innovation and Experimentation in Contemporary Hindi Drama by Parag publications in India.
From 1974 to 1979 she wrote for The Times of India as one of their correspondents from Brussels, Belgium. In 1979 she came to the United States with her husband.
Susham Bedi has been involved in exploring questions of identity, authenticity, and transformation, in her cultural criticism and academic work, and these themes are reflected as well in her fiction writing. She is the author of eight major Hindi language novels, as well as collections of Hindi short stories and poetry. These have been widely translated and have been the subject of academic dissertations and debates on the South Asian diaspora experience.
She has also been involved in Hindi language pedagogical research and has developed original reading and listening comprehension materials in Hindi. Many of these materials are available on the internet. Her "Using Authentic Materials in the Language Classroom: A Case in Hindi" was included in the anthology Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages (University of Pennsylvania Press).
From 1990 to 1991, she contributed to a BBC weekly program, Letters from Abroad, in which she discussed day to day issues about life in New York.
Her most well-known novel is Havan (1989), which was translated into English by David Rubin and published by Heinemann International under the title The Fire Sacrifice in 1993.
Her novels and short stories often feature female protagonists who are in the process of negotiating new identities which are neither fully old nor new, often finding identity and strength in the impurities in their lives. Bedi's narrative focus tends to be on the negotiative and transformative process itself, the pain and tragedy of cultural loss, but also the sense of hope and opportunity in forging new and stronger identities if one is willing to endure the transformative process. Her works are thus located squarely in the South Asian diaspora and immigrant experience.
In mid-2006, the National Publishing House, Delhi, published her Portrait of Mira in English (translated by David Rubin) along with the second edition of The Fire Sacrifice.
In 2007 her second short story collection, entitled Sarak ki Laya (Rhythm of the Road), was published by National Publishing House.
Her 8th novel, entitled Maine Nata Tora (I Broke the Ties), was published by Bhartiya Gyanpith, in December 2009.
Susham Bedi has appeared on "True Crime: New York City", "Third Watch", and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", and in movies such as "The Guru" (2002) and "ABCD" (1999).
Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson. The entry for "Susham Bedi" includes critical appraisals, biography, bibliography, and list of recent writings on or about Susham Bedi's work.