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Kasauli’s Keepers of the past
Meet Sharma Brothers, the keepers of Kasauli’s past in black and white…
There is one place on the Mall Road in Kasauli that makes strollers pause and look closely. Almost instantly, amid smiles and laughs they start identifying faces in the old photographs on a wall. It’s a sort of a photo quiz most visitors like to play. And every time there is a right answer, the laughter gets a little louder.
This is Sharma & Bros, the oldest photo studio of Kasauli that has kept this town’s past alive for almost 90 years now. The studio, which was set up in the 1930s, is run by Sharma brothers — Jatinder Sharma and Ravinder Sharma.
From Lord Mountbatten and first President Rajendra Prasad to Syama Prasad Mukherjee, who all visited Kasauli in the late 1940s and numerous other prominent people, the studio not only clicked them all but also kept them safe.
“We put most of the good photographs on the studio wall for all to see,” says Jatinder Sharma, who is in his early 70s.
“Our father had moved to Kasauli in the 1930s and opened a photo studio here. That makes us the oldest studio, at least in Kasauli. And we have captured most of the important events of Kasauli in all these years,” says Sharma.
Lawrence school, Sanawar, was one place where there was always a famous personality coming to and whenever the school needed a quick photoshoot, the studio was always the first and the only choice.
The studio also has kept old photographs of the Lawrence school alumni.
Whether its well-known people like Sunil Dutt, Puja Bedi, Maneka Gandhi, Feroze Gujral or Omar Abdullah or lesser-known people, all adorn the walls of Sharma bros.
No wonder, many alumni of the school when cross by the studio, always stop and try to find themselves or their known ones in these photographs of their childhood days.
They always meet Sharmaji and some of them ask for the prints of their school photos.
According to Sharma, Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Devi and Feroze Gujral have turned up at his studio many a times to see their photographs and show them to their families.
“You should see the happiness on their faces whenever someone spots themselves or their classmates in these photographs. Guess, this is the magic of our childhood days,” adds Sharma with a smile.
