Monday, January 5, 2015

Adieu Dr G R Sud !

One of the many things  I look forward  to  is  “Vignettes”, the weekly column  by Shriniwas Joshi, which now  appears in ‘The Tribune’ every  Monday. Today , it carries the sad news of  the demise of Dr. G.R Sud, to whom  Mr. Joshi has  paid glowing tributes  as a theatre personality. I had the privilege  of being  his student in H.P. University campus  from  !973  to 1975 .I fondly remember the very first day he came to teach us. As we introduced ourselves in the class, when a fellow student also carrying the initials GR , spelt out his full name, it drew giggles  from  the girl students  with an urban background. The fellow was  a bit embarrassed   but Dr. Sud  made light of the moment saying  that he too had a funny name. We never  tried to find out his full name as   for us he remained  GR  or Dr.GR  , or Dr. Faustus – the name endearingly   sticking to him as he taught us  Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in the first semester. A noble man indeed,  very  down to earth  and no high flying  intellectual  !  
The fact of his being a theater  personality  was never revealed  for the  two year  period  I stayed at the university , as Dr.Sud , simple as he was,never  wore  his  achievements on his sleeves.For us he was a teacher who taught and taught well Many years later I read  about this aspect of his personality, in the Hindi magazine ‘Vipasha’. Mr. Joshi  has written at length  about him in the column as well .In hind sight, I remember, his peculiar way of  uttering dialogues and reciting poetry lines  while teaching , which had something to do with his drama direction .He had a  blissfully long  life .

Adieu Dr. Sud  !     

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