The celebrations in the northern Indian town ofMajra will last all of the weekend. As well as music and dancing, thecentrepiece will be a game of kabaddi - a traditional Indian sport -held in memory of Major Mohinder Singh Chaudhary, a decorated war herokilled in border clashes between the Indians and the Chinese.

He died almost 50 years ago, and yet such is his legend thatas many as 10,000 people still attend this annual event in the Haryanaprovince.

Among the crowd there will be old comrades, friends andfamily, all led by the Major's widow of half a century, ShakuntiaChaudhary.And yet amidst all the hubbub and the hurly-burly, it is the absence ofone individual that stands out above all.

Her name is Pamela Singh and she is the only daughter of MajorChaudhary. She was born just months before his death and, today, livesa simple life in a rented house in Goa where she takes classes in yogaand pilates, reads books by the swimming pool and indulges inphotography, her real passion.

It isn't that she doesn't respect the memory of her father - more that she respects it so much that she dare not attend.

For Pamela Singh is known to the world by another name -Pamella Bordes, the high-class prostitute whose escapades in the lateEighties rocked the Establishment here.

A former Miss India, she worked as an escort girl, plying hertrade in the gilded world of billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggiand his clients.

Later she would enjoy a tempestuous relationship with Andrew Neil, the then editor of the Sunday Times.

She was desperate to bag herself a rich and powerful husband,but her shady past subsequently became front-page news after she wasspotted out on the town with former sports minister Colin Moynihan.

Despite counting an aide of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafiamong her former clients, it emerged that she had secured a Commonssecurity pass and was working as a researcher for a Tory MP.

In Britain, the scandal dominated the headlines for months,fuelled by the candid revelations about her past life and the rich andpowerful men who inhabited it.

While she clearly revelled in the notoriety, her behaviour could hardly have brought more shame on her family in India.

'How could my granddaughter do this to us?' her grandmotherasked at the time. 'She is dead to us now. If I had the strength, Iwould even kill myself. As it is, she has condemned me to a livingdeath,'

Her grandfather, a doctor and former lieutenant colonel,added: 'I feel I can barely show my face - not to my patients, my armycolleagues, not to anyone.'

But it was the words of her mother, the major's widow, that summed up just how betrayed the family felt.'I have no daughter called Pamella,' she said. 'I have no daughter.'

Although two decades have passed, those words are poignantlyreflected in Pamela's absence from the memorial to mark her father'spassing.For the shadow of Pamella Bordes still hangs over Pamela Singh -despite her best efforts to distance herself from her past.

In other words, Pamella Bordes is no more.

When approached by the Mail this week, the 48-year-old politelydeclined to talk. 'What happened 20 years ago is not related to mycurrent life situation,' she said. 'I have no connection with whathappened then.'

'Nobody knows her as Bordes now,' explains a friend. 'Pam hasbuilt a completely new circle of friends who are much younger than her- so there is less chance of them remembering.'

She describes herself as a 'very old-fashioned dame' - adescription decidedly at odds with the way she was perceived when shewas last in the public eye.

Another, who has known her for 15years, adds: 'She has never once brought up with me what happened backthen.'In fact, it's as if it never happened. She doesn't talk about it andit isn't a subject that either I or any of her other acquaintanceswould dare to raise.'

Her current lifestyle, once all chauffeur-driven limousines,designer clothes and flats in Belgravia, offers few clues to the past.The two-bed apartment in a fishing village in Goa, where she has beenliving for the past few months, is rented from a friend.

Every morning, dressed down in tracksuit bottoms and vest-top,she jumps into her Suzuki jeep runaround to attend classes at a nearbyyoga and pilates centre. Staff there have no idea of her notoriety.

The afternoons are spent reading by the communal pool.And while she works sporadically as a photographer and artist, inrecent weeks she has had time enough on her hands to make new friendson social networking sites such as Facebook.

'Goa is very quiet,' she writes to one, 'unless you want tocheck into a really nice hotel and chill out, no point in cominghere... I don't leave home for days on end... when you have travelledso much and met so many interesting people this place is a dump.'

In the early Nineties, Miss Singh changed her name and took upphotography, a hobby she had first fallen in love with while at schoolin IndiaAnd where once she was inundated with attention from the opposite sex,today it appears that Pamela is short of male company.

Writing on a forum dedicated to mountaineering - a pastime sheappears passionate about - she posts a series of messages to amiddle-aged British climber that reveal a hitherto unseen romanticstreak.

'I long for a Renaissance man myself, who will give upeverything for me and then we can climb together,' she writes. 'Anybodyout there?'

When the man jokingly responds that he would be willing tofight a duel for her hand, Pamela replies: 'You can only fight the duelif there is an opponent. No one has come forth yet.

'Let's wait and see if there are any suitors... I have quite afew here but they are locked out on grounds of either being in a cradle[too young] or swinging in a hammock.

'And, of course, Goa is full of "dudes" plagued by reefermadness. None of the above reprobates are suitable for the advertisedpost in question.'

She goes on to describe herself as a 'very old-fashioneddame' - a description decidedly at odds with the way she was perceivedwhen she was last in the public eye.

Of course, given the stories of £500-a-night sex andbed-hopping with the rich and famous, it was inevitable that she wouldemerge from the scandal of the late Eighties with her reputation intatters.

But what was perhaps surprising was the way in which she cameto be seen as the architect of her own downfall, a woman worthy oflittle sympathy.

Lynda Lee-Potter, who interviewed her for the Daily Mail,concluded that she was 'sickeningly self-obsessed, utterly immoral andunashamedly amoral'.

She went on to conclude that Bordes was'one of the most remorseless social climbers of her time'.As well as admitting to being paid to take part in group sex, lesbiansex, and bondage sessions, Pamella told how she had drawn up a 'hitlist' of the men she wanted to marry.

Although she's had boyfriends, she has never had a child. 'Hasn't India got enough children?' she once observed'I like to get photographs of the men and look at them for a long time to find the man within,' she told this paper.

'ThenI look them up in Who's Who, do more research about their interests andtry to take up those interests myself.'I always want to be the same as my man. If he rides, then I ride; ifhe shoots, then I shoot. If he likes the ballet, then I take up theballet.'

Among the men she targeted was Andrew Neil (who, during theirrelationship, was unaware of her past as an escort). The picture hewould subsequently paint of her in his autobiography was deeplyunflattering.

On one occasion, convinced that he had cheated on her, shescrawled obscenities on the drawing-room mirrors of his London flat andthen used a pair of scissors to slash half-a-dozen of his businesssuits.

When they split up, she hurled stones at his windows andposted dog excrement through his letterbox. She then proceeded to tryto make him jealous by engaging in a flirtatious dalliance with DonaldTrelford, then editor of The Observer and one of Neil's bitterestrivals.

Given that background and the mauling her reputation receivedgenerally, it is hardly surprising that she should choose to re-inventherself.And so it was that in the early Nineties she changed her name and tookup photography, a hobby she had first fallen in love with while atschool in India.

Initially, she spent time in Africa, where she claims to haveworked for British newspapers covering the continent's famines andwars. 'It was harrowing, but also fascinating,' she would later say. 'Iwent into these assignments as a girl, but emerged as a woman.'

Her working habits bordered on the obsessive: 'I used to keephaving breakdowns. I'd work constantly for six months without a break.I wouldn't speak to anybody. I'd just work, and then I'd have abreakdown, my nerves would crash.'So I'd have to be in bed for three months and then I'd get up againand work for another six months and then I'd crash again. In the end, Igot quite sick.'

Later,having trained as a photographer in New York, she would begin toexhibit her work.Much of it featured ordinary men and women in towns and villages acrossIndia. She would tour the country staying with friends, or in hotels,living a Bohemian lifestyle.

One of those who has exhibited her work is U.S.-born PeterNagy, 50, who runs the Nature Morte Gallery in Delhi. He met Pamela in1997 in Jaipur, where she had set up a studio.

'Pamela is a smart, ambitious, well-travelled andknowledgeable person,' he told me this week. 'She is a lot of fun, sheis wonderful.'All she ever wanted to do was to make her dad proud of her. 'When youhave a father who was so brave, you want to do well, too'

Pamela Singh - as she is now known - has also worked as afashion designer and now runs a company called Trimata, specialising inapparel, accessories and home furnishing inspired by Rajasthaniartisans and designs.Although she's had boyfriends, she has never had a child. 'Hasn't Indiagot enough children?' she once observed.

On the subject of family, the Mail has learnt that the riftbetween her and her mother has been healed. Even so, such is the shamecaused by her past behaviour that it is not felt she can attend theannual three-day sports festival in memory of her late father.

Krishan Kadyan, general secretary of the Late Mohinder SinghMemorial Sports Club and a friend of Pamela's mother, told me: 'Ofcourse, everyone was shocked when we learned about what she had done.Her family are well-respected, so this was most unusual.

'I think that is why she does not return to her father'smemorial event, because she does not want to be seen in public here -she is not regarded as reputable.

'I do not know her reasons for doing what she did, but the memory of something like that will remain for a lifetime.'I believe for some time, mother and daughter did not speak because of what had happened, but they are back in contact now.'

Her cousin Arvind Singh added: 'It is sad. She liked to payrespects to her father, but even now all older people in the villageknow what happened, so it is difficult for her to be here.'


That enforced absence will, no doubt, be felt keenly byPamela, whose life has been lived in the shadow of her father.A major in the Indian Army, he fought in the Himalayas during the warwith China in 1962 and was posthumously awarded India's second-highestmilitary award after leading a small group of men who kept a Chinesebattalion at bay for nine hours.

He was wounded in the battle, but refused to be evacuated anddays later died as he led his men on a successful counter-attack on theenemy.At the time, he was listed as missing in action and, as she grew up,Pamela believed there was always a chance that he might return one day.

'Ifantasised that he was a prisoner of war and might come back,' she hassaid.There can be no doubt that he left a void in her life, which some mightobserve could go some way to explaining her behaviour in the past. 'Shewas a brave young girl despite the difficult circumstances,' said heruncle Jorabar Singh.

Last night Miss Singh's mother, Shakuntia, now reconciledwith, and supportive of, her daughter, said: 'Pamela is an intelligent,successful, brave, determined person. I am very proud of her. She isnot just some Tom, Dick or Harry. She is a very important person.'People who criticise her have no idea of the hurt they cause. She hasbeen treated badly.'

Pamela, meanwhile, says that all she ever wanted to do was tomake her dad proud of her. 'When you have a father who was so brave,you want to do well, too,' she observed.And no doubt Pamela Singh realises that to achieve this she must leavea very different mark on the world to that already left by the late -and little-lamented - Pamella Bordes.