SIXTY-YEAR-OLD NIRMALA Sharma has weathered life’s vicissitudes with poise. Having lost her only child to terrorism more than a decade back, today she spends most of her time making ceramic pottery. What makes her potteries stand apart is their embellishment with the beautiful poems written by her husband who passed away a few months back.
“I used to make pottery before also and had inked some of my husband’s poems on them. But after his death this year in May, I have started writing his poems on almost all my works,” she told the Hindustan Times.
“My husband had written a poem called Chhota Sa Haath for our son Devasish. After our son’s death in 1994, the poem used to disturb him emotionally. He would get up in the night and tell me that he was having nightmares about the poem. On one such occasion, I wrote that poem on a pot and kept it beside him. This soothed him emotionally and he got over his restlessness,” she said. “This was the first time I wrote his poem on my ceramic pot. After his death, I have tried to pen all his favourite poems on my works,” she added.
Ms Sharma’s son Capt Devasish had passed away in a terrorist attack in Kashmir in 1994. Both she and her husband were teachers at Central School.
{{/usCountry}}Ms Sharma’s son Capt Devasish had passed away in a terrorist attack in Kashmir in 1994. Both she and her husband were teachers at Central School.
{{/usCountry}}Her husband Jitendra Kumar started writing poems at an early age when he was staying in the house of Munshi Premchand’s daughter at Sagar for his studies. “After our son’s death his writing increased, because he found it an apt platform for giving vent to his emotions,” Sharma said.
“My husband and son used to tell me to keep myself busy. That is why I started learning ceramic work. Initially I was scared that they would break. But now, I have got over all my fears.” Ms Sharma has also put up her works at several exhibitions.
A glowing tribute by a wife to her husband’s prolific pen.