Whenever there was a function at The Doon School, one remembers meeting a wonderful teacher with an ever smiling face and an endearing personality which turned strangers into his friends.
He was Sheel Vohra, known lovingly as "Bond" by students down the years. Four years ago, just before the school began its platinum jubilee celebrations in October, Vohra, the longest serving teacher of the school and former deputy headmaster, passed away. Vohra taught generations of Doscos from 1959 to 1998, passed away exactly a week before the school began its platinum jubilee celebrations.
Known lovingly as 'Bond' by thousands of Doon School boys down the years, Vohra was a well-known and well-loved personality of the Doon valley. He was a simple, disciplined and affectionate man. His devotion to Cricket is legendary and stories of his dedication to cricket have been part of the Doon School's treasure of anecdotes and interesting tales.
His long post-match lectures, the watchful eye on boys walking in front of the side screen and piercing look at a school player who had thrown his wicket away, his long articles in the Doon School Weekly each week will always be remembered. Vohra was an institution in himself. There are two events that specially show Vohra's extraordinary passion for the game as well as his unique nature. One was the wet evening when the rain had driven everybody indoors. Vohra was on the prowl, a solitary figure picking up pieces of clothing and kit left behind by careless school boys scuttling for shelter. He slipped and fell, seriously injuring his knee which later needed surgery. The second was during a staff match. He had been struck by a nasty delivery and actually wrung his hand in pain - it was only many overs later when the glove turned red did the others realise he had broken his thumb. left to himself he would have certainly continued but the doctor intervened.
Says former headmaster Shomie Das, "I knew him first as a young schoolmaster and later as teacher of my two sons and later still as a colleague and a friend. I have yet to meet a schoolmaster who made a school and his students so entirely part of his life. There was never an occasion that I know of where he was not actively involved with boys of all ages - in the classroom or on the games field or on a cycling or mountaineering expedition. To bless his students, he was known to leave 2 p.m. from Dehradun on a rickety bus to Delhi and be back on time for a first school the next morning! Boys also took to him - there can be no gathering of Old Boys - as old as those who left in the '60s, where conversation would not veer almost naturally towards the one and only Bond!"
A teacher of Mathematics, he took enormous pains to ensure that boys understood the subject and was available at all times to help. But it was cricket that was his greatest passion. It was fitting that the Old Boys gave him a cricket match as a farewell in 1998 - nothing could have been more appropriate. On a Sunday in the cricket season, anyone who had anything to do with The Doon School would know where to find Sheel Vohra. He would surely be umpiring a match on the main field, be it a cold morning or a hot afternoon.
His first article in the Doon School Weekly appeared in 1963 and it was on cricket. However, cricket was never the only thing he wrote on. Vohra presented his views on a number of issues which he considered close to his heart and important for growth of his students. Generations of Doscos have known Sheel Vohra as 'Bond' — a nickname he earned soon after joining school because of his James Bond-like ability to detect anything going wrong. It is more suitable to call him 'Bond' as he was the bond between the school and generations of its old pupils and associates.
Vohra was often the only link that the Weekly had with generations of Old Boys as well as well-wishers of the school. He kept up with them and supplied the Weekly with a steady flow of information pertaining to former students and old associates of the school. The "Old Boy's News" section depended most heavily on news given by Vohra.
Says School's Director of Public Affairs Piyush Malviya, "Even though he retired many years ago he was at the school almost every day...for the matches, for developing the archives and for providing guidance to the students. He is greatly missed."
