Sunday, August 3, 2014

Scholar Extraordinary

Only  yesterday  I  learnt  of  the  sad demise of Prof. Som   P. Ranchan, a scholar of international repute. Unfortunately , I  never  had a chance to be associated with  him, as  he joined the English  faculty of Himachal University in the seventies  after I  had  left  . Friends who had stayed back   for further studies had  the good  luck to be his students and to  interact with him and were all praise for his  learning and scholar ship .  He was a  teacher,  novelist, poet, critic  rolled into one  and had done commendable work on Walt Whitman, the American poet. As an academician, he  left his mark  home and abroad. Years ago a friend had  given me a book on  Aurotherapy , authored  by  Prof. Ranchan.  I had  a brief    meeting with him in December, 2012  when   an acquaintance  introduced  me to him  and  we had tea together  in  some restaurant. It was  a stimulating experience.  It seems poetry  runs in the blood . Two of his younger brothers namely  Vijay Ranchan and  Arvind  Ranchan are   acclaimed  poets in Hindi and his daughter Renee  has a  published  English  poetry collection  to her credit . 

R I P  Prof.  Ranchan  !