Bimla Bissell, the indispensable and well-connected social secretary of four American ambassadors to India and a kind of unofficial ambassador herself, a savvy local guide to the culture and complexities of the sprawling country, died Jan. 9 at her home in Delhi. . He was 92 years old.
Her daughter, Monsoon Bissell, said the cause was complications from diabetes.
Mrs. Bissell was the first ambassador manager John Kenneth GalbraithAn erudite liberal economist who developed deep ties with India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He followed him Chester BowlesAdman became a champion of civil rights.
Both were appointees of John F. Kennedy, and among many elaborate diplomatic extravaganzas, it was Ms. Bissell's job to organize the nine-day visit to India in 1962 that gave the world breathless coverage. Read “Mrs. Kennedy Welcomes Cheers on Arrival in India”. front page title In The New York Times, as the first lady landed with her sister, Lee Radziwill.
It also fell to Mrs. Bissell to gently inform her Indian hosts that the gifts she brought—leather picture frames stamped with the words “100% American Beef”—would not be appropriate.
When Richard Celeste Hired in 1963 as personal assistant to Mr. Bowles and embassy protocol officer, he became disillusioned with the latter job description. So Mrs. Bissell took it away.
“He took charge of my education with ease and grace,” said Mr. Celeste, who would go on to serve as Peace Corps director, Ohio governor and President Bill Clinton's representative to India. He packed her for dinner every night until his wife arrived with their newborn baby.
By all accounts, Mrs. Bissell was a social network of women, an accomplished salonist who knew anyone of any importance in any field.
Friends and colleagues said he was reserved and diplomatic. He was curious, playful and sociable. He reads 14 newspapers every morning. He was politically astute, and in later years he could often predict local elections down to the number of votes. He had an uncanny ability for empathy and friendship and for developing and maintaining those friendships.
He counted among his admirers – and they were legion – heads of state, diplomats, politicians, NGO leaders, journalists, filmmakers, authors, artisans, artists and students, all of whom he gathered for lavish lunches and dinners in his spacious stucco house. In a leafy development in South Delhi, rich in handicrafts and textiles, art and antiques.
She and her husband John Bissell were educated in Delhi. He was a Connecticut-born Yale graduate who traveled to India in 1958 on a Ford Foundation grant and never left, loving the country and his future wife. He established a company to export Indian handicrafts and later a school to train artisans.
Their family was a kind of North Star, said Marie Brenner, one of the many journalists Ms. Bissell drew into her circle. Others called it Grand Central East for its open-door policy. “It was always full of remarkable people,” Ms. Brenner said. “Operational energy was political and intellectual discourse at a very high level.”
Mr Celeste said: “John was a dreamer and Bim was a doer. “He was extremely knowledgeable and his instincts were extremely sound.”
At some point, Mr. Celeste realized that Ms. Bissell was juggling two jobs. In the mid-1950s, he founded Playhouse, Delhi's first progressive pre-school.
“Over time, I have come to realize that the Playhouse School is a magnet for hard-working, enthusiastic Indian families,” Mr. Celeste said. “Bim built a dynamic set of relationships that gave him a unique Rolodex as a social secretary.”
Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado, a family friend, described Ms. Bissell as an “extraordinary citizen-diplomat for India.” (He was born in India; his father, Douglas Bennett, was also an aide to Ambassador Bowles.)
He added in an email: “He was a guiding light for the new generations in Delhi, especially the youth he loved and would regale with stories from his remarkable life.”
Bimla Nanda, known as Bim, was born on October 12, 1932 in Quetta, now part of Pakistan. She was the eldest of three daughters of veterinary surgeon Sita (Sibal) Nanda and Pran Nath Nanda, who became independent India's first livestock commissioner. He was also a table tennis champion who invented a unique way of holding the paddle known as the “Nanda grip,” according to Ms. Bissell.
Bim grew up in Lahore in the Punjab region until the family moved to Delhi in 1947 after Partition. She majored in English at Miranda House College for Women, University of Delhi.
His first marriage, an arranged match to a government assistant from a suitable family, was brief and unhappy. Divorce was unthinkable at the time, but Bim left her husband and India to attend the University of Michigan, where she earned a master's degree in education in 1958. When he returned home, he was kicked out of the local gym, a social gym. It was a club left over from the Raj.
“He broke all the conventions,” said his daughter, “but he didn't try to make any sense of it. He did it because it was the life he had to live.”
Bim Nanda was working for a government organization promoting traditional crafts when Mr. Bissell arrived with a grant from the Ford Foundation. He was immediately smitten with her; he thought his country had been hit. Anyway, they became fast friends as Mr. Bissell wooed her with enthusiasm and great discipline. For the next five years, she said, he sent her a note and a red rose every day.
At a certain point, Mr. Bissell's mother intervened. “I want to know how you feel about my son,” said Bim. “He's in love with you.”
“He is in love with India,” replied Bim.
“I know my son,” said Mrs. Bissell, “and it's time to fish or cut bait.”
They were married in 1963 at Mr. Bowles' home.
With his wife's help and connections, Mr. Bissell built a company. FabindiaSelling products – homewares, clothing and jewelry – made by Indian artisans using traditional methods. At first, he operated in one room of the apartment he rented. Over the decades, it has become a household name in India with a thriving export business and hundreds of retail stores across the country.
After Mr. Bowles' term ended in 1969, Ms. Bissell served her successors, Ambassadors Kenneth B. Keating and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose terms ended in 1975.
He then joined the World Bank as an external affairs officer in India, essentially acting as the bank's cultural ambassador and all-round fixer, helping the bank's expatriate officers find homes and schools for their children, shopping with their wives, and even fixing the phone lines. construction. He has worked with many non-governmental organizations and founded one. industryWith a mission to empower Indian women entrepreneurs.
Besides her daughter, Mrs. Bissell is survived by her son William, who runs Fabindia, two grandchildren, and her sister Meena Singh. Mr. Bissell died in 1998.
After leaving the World Bank in 1996, Ms. Bissell worked as a consultant for a number of organizations and continued to be at the center of the cross-cultural social vortex. He sold his school, the Playhouse, in 2005. His home remained a center for a number of politicians, artists and literary figures who relied on him for his political acumen and delighted in his friendship until his death.
Eric GarcettiThe former mayor of Los Angeles and the US ambassador to India were with Ms. Bissell, as were her predecessors.
“You are India,” he said. “And India you are.”