When Kabir Bedi fatefully interviewed The Beatles for the first time in India for All India Radio, he asked John Lenon about one advice he’d give to the youth back then. Lenon told Bedi, “Question everything. Don’t be afraid of being a rebel.”
Kabir Bedi’s memoir - 'Stories I Must Tell: The Emotional Life of an Actor' is symbolic of what Lenon said.
Published by Westland, Kabir’s memoir is brutally honest, explicit and detailed. With his charming vocabulary and articulation skills, Bedi manages to captivate the reader, not giving a moment to put down the memoir. What’s noteworthy is that he writes for all generations (which could totally be a coincidence). Anyone who picks up the book will quite naturally immerse in the world and life of Kabir Bedi, especially due to his penchant for describing moments and phases of his life in the most picturesque and visual way.
Unlike many other memoirs that require some sort of background context in reading, Kabir’s story flows like a tale that doesn't need an introduction.
Most of what is considered taboo in the Indian society and Asian culture per se, is what has practically happened in his life - from falling in love multiple times to facing emotional hardships, losing a son to suicide separation from the love of his life, having children, being the father, juggling his early days as a journalist and pouring into the world of advertising and further to that, becoming an actor in the Indian film industry, facing the consequences of stardom, Bedi’s life is worth a read.
Not just because it tells the tales and the stories that have often made headlines sensational ones to say in newspapers and magazines for years and continue to do so, but also because he fills the gaps, describes the larger picture of what happened and the series of events that followed.
And instead of justifying what happened, he explains how and why it happened and accepts where he was wrong. He accepts that he evolved as a person over the years, and what he probably was in a particular decade is not necessarily what he was in the later years of his life by the establishing that a person evolves over the years. Change is constant.
Even though Bedi is a little over 75, millennials and Generation Z will also relate to his writing because of his experiences of being in relationships, however tumultuous they may have been. Which kind of establishes the fact that human relationships have always been complicated.
Bedi’s life, which is quite popular on the internet and otherwise is basically what probably happens behind every second door if you knock at any home around your neighbourhood. The difference here is that Bedi decides to tell his story, accepts his flaws and moves on with it.
Noticeably one of the most interesting portions of this book is his relationship with the Gandhis in India, of being around Indira Gandhi, and mingling with Rajiv Gandhi in his younger days.
Like any other person who would grapple in a relationship that's twisted Bedi leaves himself vulnerable in his writing and could be a little cathartic for many readers to probably see themselves in him and that is extremely brave of Kabir Bedi.
He takes responsibility for what is written and stands by it. He doesn't flinch in interviews given to the press and proves that writing probably is the best way to move on in life. His audiobook is available in the UK and the book can be bought on Amazon.
