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Ex-IAS officer enjoys putting pen to paper

When I went to meet Ramesh Chandra Sharma (RCS) at his home named 'Taksal House', he was reading a newspaper sitting in a car stationed on top of his house.

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Shriniwas Joshi

When I went to meet Ramesh Chandra Sharma (RCS) at his home named 'Taksal House', he was reading a newspaper sitting in a car stationed on top of his house. He said, in winter, a car is a very comfortable spot for reading, as it saves one from the gush of wind, the sun provides the car a cozy warmth and the closed windows save one from monkeys. RCS is knocking the doors of 90s and is the oldest living former IAS officer settled in Shimla. He was born on March 21, 1929, at Taksal, the last village in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, touching the borders of Haryana, to Vaidya Mahesh Chandra Sharma and Bhagwanti, whose photograph was hung on a wall of his room showing closeness to his mother. 

At present, he lives in 'Taksal House', the house that he got built in 1987 in a posh area between Kusumpti and Chhota Shimla. He did his matriculation from Kalka, graduation from Patiala and post-graduation in economics from Shimla. He joined the law faculty of Delhi University for doing LLB but could not pursue it due to financial hardship but completed it when in service. 

Presenting me his latest books, a book of plays 'Katha Ant ki Ore' published in 2016 containing three plays and a novel 'Pargrahi' (Alien) published in 2018, he said: "I am alive today because I write. I have not paid to the publishers for my four novels, two anthologies of short stories, four plays and four poetry books. The times have changed now and the publisher is asking money to publish my latest collections of poetry and stories." 

Although he had edited the bilingual magazine 'Guardian' by the IAS for the IAS, yet he confessed that he was never comfortable in writing in English. His first story, however, was in English, 'When I was a Prince', and published in the magazine of Mahendra College, Patiala, in 1946. It is a story of a boy, who was dreaming of becoming a Prince, but he lost his crown when his mother woke him up. His literary journey, too, started from that college when his 'Do Geet' and a story 'Jogin' was published in the same magazine. 

He said: "My first book of short stories 'Pratidhwani' was published in 1968 and the response to it delighted me and gave me the courage to write further. Paresh, a critique, had commented that RCS has the aptitude of writing a novel and so, I wrote a novel 'Barf Ki Raakh' (1974), which earned the State Academy Award." His pen has not stopped since. 

He was much impressed by Professor Shaiwaal of Patiala. He dubbed him as the epitome of wisdom and a model of simple living. He was a teacher of Sanskrit and Hindi in Mahendra College, Patiala, and used to encourage talented students to do better in life. RCS said he had Hindi as an optional subject, but Shaiwaal must have found some spark in him and made him the editor of Hindi section of the magazine. 

He drew my attention towards the two boxes lying in the room and said these were full of manuscripts. "I do not write myself; this is an unknown force that comes and drives me to write. Computers are aliens to me. I handwrite my books," said RCS. I could see that his handwriting at this advanced age was legible and upright. 

He started his administrative career as Naib Tehsildar in 1952 in Himachal Pradesh and was promoted to the IAS in 1973. He remained the Deputy Commissioner of Kinnaur from 1977 to 1980. He was the first to give the idea of 'Bachat Bhawan' (BB) to the state by getting constructed the first BB in Kinnaur in 1979. As this Bhawan was built from the prize money received from the small savings done in the district, he named it BB and the name stays. Today, each district headquarters in Himachal has a BB. It contains a big hall to organise conferences there besides other rooms. He recollected how a puffed-up Governor had virtually thrown him out of his office one day when he could not digest a note written by RCS on a file. That was the most horrible time for him, but then his son-in-law, Ashwani Kumar, became the Governor of Nagaland and RCS sat on a prime spot to watch the proceedings of Ashwani's oath-taking ceremony. He says: "The grace of God in the form of blessings has always stayed with me. There, I felt as if the God's hand was washing off the stain of wrongdoings done to me years ago." 

RCS, I wish you long life and long penmanship. May you complete the novel 'Teen Haath, Ek Angoothi', which has recently come under your pen!  

Tailpiece

If my doctor tells me that I have only six minutes to live, I will not brood. I will write a little faster- Issac Asimov

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