s o m d e v a .
o r g |
Vijaya Sharma
Dr.
Gopal
Singh Rawat
Dr. Anil K. Goel
Dr.
Sachin Biswas
Dr. S. K.
Upadhyaya
Arun
Gupta
Dr. Wazahat Husain
Madhulika Choudhry
Dr. Govind. S. Rajwar
Dr.
Ravindra Chibbar
Surgeon Commodore (Retd.)
Dr. A. K. Verma
Dr. Mahesh Bhandari
Dr. M. A. Rau
Sandeep
Puran Singh
Pradeep Sharma
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Down the memory lane
Arun Gupta
It was sometime in July 1945, that
we met at the small dhaba at Pilani in Rajasthan, just
outside the hostel we had taken refuge for the day as the mess
was yet to be shifted. We all came for our admission in B. Sc.
The daal, at the dhaba, had a peculiar smell and
that was our first initiation to garlic tadka. Som Dev
did not mind it but I did, as I was not used to even eating
onions. Shri Sukh Dev Pandey, a scholar from Benaras Hindu
University, hailing from Kumaon Hills, was the Principal, a very
genial and noble soul, who later became the chairman of the
Birla Education Trust. After a short interview we all were
admitted to the B.Sc. (Biology). We were about 12 to 13 young
lads. Som Dev hailed from Western U.P., Churiala to be precise.
He was a strange combination of rural rustic and urban
cultivated. he could fluently talk in the colloquial dialect of
western U.P., a flavour which he kept till the end. We were
allotted the same hostel, Ram Bhawan- Krishna Bhawan, built very
well and comfortable, single seated rooms. One wooden cot, a
table and armless chair -that was all, just to our requirement.
The college was a mile away and we all used to go together and
return the same way in the evening. Some of us including Som Dev
used our solar hats in the scorching sun and raincoats when it
rained. The monsoons were the most pleasant season in the
Shekhavati. Veer Bhaooti, in velvety colorful coats, a
sort of coats(a sort of mite - arthropod) came out from nowhere.
We took keen
interest in our surroundings, we used to discover something new
every day and gave it to our college museum.
Som Dev was a heavy smoker, except
for the college time, he had a cigarette on his lips. He, I
remember, had a parker pen with a diamond shape mark- a luxury
those days. Our Professors were most able and qualified. Among
them were Dr. Beri Charan Mahindra, the famous authority on
reptiles and Dr. K. P. Bhargava and B. V. Ratnam in Botany
department. Dr. Bhargava went to England in 1946 to work on
viruses, a new subject at that time |
The atmosphere was very cordial in the college and the hostel,
except for the fact, that there was no cinema, but the college
library was good enough to compensate it, besides we has many
social- cultural activities. The Shiv Ganga canal was one, where
we used to go and bathe naked in a community fashion. The canal
was a circular one- five feet deep filled with sweet fresh water
of a hundred feet circumference. We had never any shortage of
water in the desert, probably ours was an oasis. In hostel also,
we also took bath in a modern European fashion. Alas, there was
no girl student in our science group - despite the co-education.
In the Arts faculty there were several and the professors were
equally renowned like Dr. Bhagwat Sharan Upadhyaya, Bal Krishna,
young Bhattacharya, K. L. Sehal and others. We were a funny lot,
once we all biologist decided to learn painting and joined the
evening classes of Professor Bhoor Singh Shekhawat- a very
talented artist indeed. Som Dev was very good at drawing, I was
not so. |
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Som was very jolly, always
laughing, a tall fair colored - with scanty hair on his chin- a
Chinese like face, so we announced that a young Chinese
professor would be visiting our college and attend the cultural
programme also. He wearing a night gown and a pointer in his
hand appeared on the stage, I was his interpreter. He spoke-
ting fung, chou chung chingling- ho chi and I
translated this in Hindi in free style. This went on for about
15 minutes. The whole house was agog. Nobody could recognize
him, all were much amused. Once we went on foot in the desert
and discovered a beautiful skeleton of a camel, all cleaned by
the vultures and the sand. It was shining bright when we brought
it to the college museum. We also caught a small cobra and a
viper, a common poisonous snake, collected wild flowers
and leaves, we even went to the small a small town nearby and
admired the beautiful wall frescoes of Shekhawati. Som was
always a part of field investigation team, called expeditions.
We were all very studious. When the new comers joined the hostel
we, at 10 or 11 in the night searched the rooms, posing as
wardens and took away the sweet halwas and ladoos.
This was all in the name of ragging, no dirty ,manhandling. Prem
Nath Meherotra was also his close friend who later became a
leading doctor of Etawah. Once he put up the ' Tandava Nritya'
of Shiva with no clothes with a Trishool and a Damroo
in his hands.
Top
Our classmate, Shiv Kumar Sharma,
was a good debater and was elected the Prime Minister of the
college Parliament. Som Dev was made one of his ministers. I
happened to be anither debater and founded the Progressive
People's Party (P.P.P.) with Navroze Akruwallah and Leela Dhar
Joshi as my deputy leader. Naturally I became the leader of the
opposition. A question was asked about the college urinals and
Som Dev was to answer. He gave a very witty reply. The urinals,
he said, were provided urea which we needed to boost out
agricultural production. Indeed in post independent India, urea
fertilizer became the top priority of the country.
Rajendra Babu (later the President
of India) often visited Pilani and stayed at Birla's guest
house. As he suffered from asthma, the dry climate of Pilani was
soothing to him, but we were hell bent upon criticizing the big
capitalists, Birla, Tata and Dalmia and ghereoed him as
well on this score. How foolish was it on our part, now I
realize. Hari Prasad Paliwal, another colleague of ours wa a
good singer- dramatist and photographer, he had developed a
studio in one small room of the college. Once he took a group
photograph of all the B. Sc. Biology student. Som Dev was tall,
so quite conspicuous. I and M. M. Payak were the shortest. Once
I scripted the mad house play and Som Dev took the leading role
as one of the lunatic asylum inmates. Jagdish and Purohit N.
Jodhpur was a master flutist- a very good bansoori
player. We all enjoyed his melodies on flute. He later became a
chief Engineer in Rajasthan.
We used to go to our homes only on
two occasions in the year- once during long Dusherra vacations
and the other after the college sessions were over in April-
May. There was no rail connecting the Pilani town, The lst
railway terminus was Chirawa ten miles away in the desert.
Sometimes, there was no college bus and we all crossed the sandy
path on foot. It is difficult to imagine now, but we enjoyed it.
It was like a commune that we lived. However, hostel facilities
were excellent, including the rooms, the toilets, the mess and
the milk supply from the college dairy. Water and electricity
were available all the time. Now after 60 years, after seeing
several top Universities, I can say that our Pilani stay was
best in all respect. |
After B. Sc., he took admission in M. sc. Botany in Allahabad. I
at M.Sc. Zoology at Lucknow and then at Allahabad. We met but
not so frequently. I was living away in the university hostel
Top
In 1956, I was posted as
Information Officer at Dehra Dun (in the state government). I
put my luggage with another childhood friend Ramesh Chandra
Sharma, a station home officer in police in Clement Town. A few
days house I visited Soms house in circular road who was now a
lecturer and Head of Botany Department in DAV college.When he
came to know that I came from Clement Town (5 miles away) on
Ghora Tonga a fare of Rs. 3 or the full Tonga. Then
he said, why don't you come and stay with me, till you get a
suitable accommodation. I stayed with him for about a month or
so in May ( as in April I was at the Ardha Kumbh, Haridwar) He
had a very good domestic help- Dilaram or Hriday Ram and Som's
wife was away at Meerut. So our old college life was renewed.
During this period, I realized that Som had matured not only as
A good Botanist (taxonomist) but also a good gardner, a
photographer, and a connoisseur of art. He accompanied me on my
official tours ( as I had an official staff car, a Ford pickup)
and took photographs of the countryside including Mussoorie,
Chakrata Hills and Jaunsaar Bawar. Soon after we discovered a
Kothi, on 24, Circular road which was locked but vacant and
got it allotted in my name. I and Som broke open the lock and
took possession of it. Another friend of Som was his colleague
in Botany department was Banerji, and they both used to come to
my office together at Astley Hall. Soon we three became great
friends. Som had a knack for dicsovering and collecting plants.
He was a man of many talents. But his first love was Botany. He
developed a herbarium with several thousands specimen, a rare
one indeed. He had become a great taxonomist, specialist in
classification and nomenclature. Even FRI named one Bamboo
variety after him which he had discovered. He was my reference
book as faras plants were concerned. I have met and seen many
great scientist but he was one of the greatest. He collected
materials from Ladakh and other far away places. He had a nose
foe queer objects. Even for his house he collected the jet black
stones from river Song near Doon and formed a pattern of a
dancer in abstract, on the face wall of his new home, which
always fascinated me. Once he showed a painting of a creeper-
Ipomea and its bell shaped blue flowers. I asked him where he
got it form, the answer was- the kabari shop. It is
still on the wall in his study. We often visited old shops and
kabaris for rare and old books
Som was not only a field man but
was also a voracious reader. Very few in India could match his
caliber. I never saw him morose and angry in very adverse
condition of his village property matters. He was always smiling
and treated his wife with dignity, love and respect at equal
footing. Sometimes even showing that he feared her and
mischievously whispering into my year. Only in November-
December 2004 did we meet , not knowing that it would be our
last meeting. He made his wife, Vijaya, also a botanist, a
gardener and a bonsai specialist. He was very warm and
affectionate and I think his wife is equally talented. It was a
mutual give and take between the two. She is not only a good
housewife and an interior decorator but a real life
partner in every sense of the word. One of them were destined to
be left alone and so it as Som Dev's turn to go. In one line -he
was a great botanist, a connoisseur of art, a good friend and an
ideal husband. I still cherish the days we spent together. Som
Dev deserved much more than what he got from the world. He was
liberal, democratic, and secular in his outlook- a very rational
one- such persons are now an extinct species. I am sure his
talented and youthful son Vivek will carry his legacy and keep
the flame aglow. |
14th March,
2005
Arun Gupta
Keshav Lila
502, South Civil lines
Meerut Road
Muzaffarnagar-251001
U.P.
Phone: 0131-2421568
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