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My memories of Mr Som Dev Sharma
Madhulika
Choudhry
My association with Mr Som Dev
Sharma has been since I was an infant when my parents came to
live across the road at number 16 Circular Road. For me he has
always been Sharma Uncle, a man so generous with his love and
affection and along with Sharma aunty has made such an
impression on our lives. Our families developed a friendship
which resulted n buying land together and built houses side by
side and have shared each others heart felt sorrows and
happiness to this day.
Some of my most memorable
moments, which I often think about start in the 1950’s and early
60’s when we were still living in Circular Road, my high point
was to go and see their meticulous garden when it was in full
bloom, especially the long rows of sweet peas in different
colours. Uncle and aunty counting the number of flowers along
each stem and saying, “I think this is a record”. I remember the
library in their house, full of rows of books.
Uncle got his first Lambretta
scooter, it was one of the very few in Dehra Dun, my sister and
myself were given treats to go for a ride up to the race course,
Vivek then small standing in front and us on the back seat.
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In the early sixties we moved to
our new house, uncle and aunty planned their gardens with great
thought and planning which have now matured into a haven of
beautiful plants and trees. One can’t think of any plant that
does not have its pride position in the garden. Over the years
we were growing up and I became the quiet, shy one in the
family, my eldest sister Mridula, the outgoing one built more of
a raport with the family. Our older brother joined the army.
Uncle was away for long periods of time collecting plants to add
to his Herbarium collection, a great many of them discovered for
the first time. The department peon, Pancham Singh, uncle had
trained in pressing plants and he accompanied him on many
occasions. D.A.V. College upgraded up to offering M.Sc. in
Botany, Uncle was working day and night in his office upstairs,
preparing meticulous notes for the first batch. Whenever I went
to the house I could smell the cigarette smoke coming from
upstairs and I knew that he should not be disturbed. I would go
to aunty and she would say “See uncle upstairs” and as I climbed
up the stairs, he would take of his glasses and say with a smile
“ Hanh beti, kaise ho” I would ask him “ Uncle aap kya
kar rahe ho” and he would show me the drawings on thin like
tissue paper he had prepared labeled so that they served his
notes while he was teaching and he said that they would be light
to carry.
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For my graduation I decided to
study at D.A.V. College and decided to take Botany, Zoology and
Chemistry as my main subjects and part of the lectures in
Taxonomy, were taught by him. All the students feared him as a
strict disciplinarian and were quite quick to take their places
before he walked into the lecture room. The doors were closed
once he walked in and after attendance we would all listen with
great interest, we wrote down points here and there, but did not
need to make notes as the lecture was interesting and
informative unlike other professors, where we just sat down and
took down notes which were dictated to us.
I decided to do my Masters in
Botany, in those days only ten students to a year; once again I
had the honour of being his student. For our finals, chits were
drawn for the subjects for which we and to submit for thesis. It
was my good luck that Sachin Biswas and myself drew to work
under him as our mentor. I came home looking quite worried and
my sister asked what the matter was, I said that I had drawn to
work under him and I wasn’t sure that I could work up to his
standards, immediately she said that I was a fool to think so
and I was so fortunate to have the chance. After that, I never
looked back. He helped me every step of the way, I had access to
his work, notes, his herbarium, his library and above all his
vast personal knowledge- A walking, talking encyclopedia into
which a great number of students tapped into for information. He
just stood above the rest.
After completing my masters I got
married and moved to the UK, my first visit was after 6 years
and when I went to visit them both, he said to aunty “ Where is
that dinner set you got for Madhu” Although aunty did all the
purchases, he was aware of everything.
These are just a few flashes of
my memories over the past 50 years and I would just like to say
that along side uncle, Sharma aunty as I call her, has been with
him every step of the way, hand in hand, enjoying and living the
same dream they both dreamt together. She has a wonderful world
of plants, so many wonderful memories to remind her of her life
with uncle. “ True soul mates completely devoted to each other”
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