Eulogy for Prof HY Mohan Ram, preeminent botanist of India.

Eulogy for Prof HY Mohan Ram, preeminent botanist of India.

Professor, Holenarasipur Yoganarasimham Mohan Ram, fondly referred to as HYM, an unassuming botanist and a thoughtful extremely hardworking teacher who was fascinated by nature, particularly of the flora, and a doyen of Indian Botanist, a great human being with varied interest, beyond his first two loves - Botany and his fellow researcher Manasi Ghosh, whom he later married - namely Music, travel, photography and cricket, who belonged to the rare genre of general botanists, left us for his heavenly abode, yesterday, on the 18th, June 2018. The botanical fraternity not just in India but globally and so also the scientific community are deeply saddened by the demise of Prof HYM.

We at the NCSM, National Science Centre, in particular, have lost one of our preeminent patron who distinguished himself in his service to our Council, serving as a member of the apex Governing Body of the Council and so also as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Science Centre, New Delhi, during the nascent days from its beginning until and after its opening on 9th January, 1992. I had the honour of his acquaintance all through this period. The founding director of the National Science Centre, Mr PK Bhaumik, my boss, often used to take me along to Prof HYMs office and house in the Delhi University, and coerce me to speak to him in Kannada. Prof HYM has delivered innumerable number of his lectures at the National Science Centre, one of which, I vividly remember for the Himalayan blunder that my fellow senior curator Mr Rajagopal made while proposing a welcome and introductory speech, just before Prof HYM was to deliver his lecture on “Basics of Tissue Culture” a subject on which Prof HYM had complete command and believed it to be of great importance to the school student community. Raj Gopal, a fellow curator (mechanical Engineer) with forgettable Botany credentials, while welcoming Prof HYM and introducing his talk referred to the title of Professors talk as “Tissues of Basic Culture” rather than “Basics of Tissue Culture”, which was so wittingly corrected by Prof HYM to the tumultuous applause by the students.

Prof HYM was a firm believer in science communication and was an ardent populariser of science, the genesis of which goes back to his college days in Mysore, from where he did his BSc at the St. Philomena’s College in Mysore. That college had a lot of wild plants around it where HYM spent most of his time treading through each of these trees and plants, which further accentuated his interest in plants. He was elected as the Secretary of the Natural Science Society of the College. During this period HYM decided to invite the legendary Sir C V Raman for a lecture to the students of his college. In his capacity as the Secretary of the Natural Science Society, he dared to write a request letter to Sir C V Raman. He wrote “We have started a science club, would you please come and give us an inaugural lecture?”.

Raman too was a firm believer in connecting with the students and he replied, “Yes, provided you give me petrol to come from Bangalore and go back”, which was agreed to by HYM. When asked about the title of his talk, Raman wrote, “I will decide it on the platform.” On the eventful day of Raman’s talk, HYM had kept a beautiful seashell on the table. Raman picked it up and said, “I’ll speak on symmetry in nature. Left handedness and right handedness in shells and even in molecules of biological importance.” Raman, HYM reminisces later, spoke for one hour and the entire audience were absolutely spell bound. Ramans talk had a tremendous impact on every student including HYM. The talk was full of humour and touched not merely students heads but also their hearts. Raman at the end of his lecture told HYM “Look, I must take a promise from you. When you become a scientist or a teacher you must readily agree if you are invited to speak to children or students. Will you give me that promise?” Yes HYM had pledged Sir Raman and this pledge, Prof. HYM continued to honour until his last, speaking to the students and consistently making efforts to popularise Science all through his long career.

Prof HYM had great love for writing and editing and these qualities of Prof HYM was very effectively used by his guide and mentor Prof. F C Steward (a plant physiologist famous for his experiments on cellular totipotency) at the Cornell University, where Prof HYM completed his PhD, in editing a series of his publications. Prof HYM has also written a range of technical and semi- technical literature, including papers, review articles, school textbooks and reminiscences. His extraordinary talent in writing, where he mixes his erudition in Botany with his scholastic and command over English language, can best be seen from a quote from one of his autobiographical articles, which reads “ I wish I could be like a tree; deep rooted and firmly fixed, bearing a lofty bole and a broad canopy, continuously absorbing, synthesizing and renewing, bearing fragrant flowers and delicious fruits, unmindful of stresses and insults, resilient to changes and perpetually giving and not coveting. To this I must add tenacity, based on the remarkable example of a gingko tree, almost at the epicentre of the 1945 Hiroshima nuclear explosion, that sprouted from the root after its trunk had been completely demolished along with everything around it.”

Prof. Mohan Ram was born on the 24th of September 1930 in Karnataka into a large family and one of his illustrious siblings included H Y Sharada Prasad, who made a profound name for himself and his family in Journalism. HY Sharada Prasad also served as an Assistant Editor of ‘Yojana’ and in the PMO as an Information Adviser to four Prime Ministers; namely Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and also during the initial period of Rajeev Gandhi. HYP part funded HYM in completing his MSc.

On this sad occasion, I join count less number of his students and the other scientific community in praying for his soul to rest in eternal peace and bliss in the botanic serenity of the heavenly abode to which he has departed.

Long live Professor HYM.