PANO - To those who met and talked with Prof. Geetesh Sharma and listen to what he talks about Vietnam, they all felt his great love and enthusiasm, as he has spent many years in his life to make contributions to Vietnam – India friendship.

Geetesh Sharma was born in 1932 in a remote village in the state of Bihar, where there is a huge number of impoverished people in India. He was taught to become a Brahmanism hermit, the most respected position of social strata in India at that time. With a strong character and strong awareness of equality and truth in his adolescence, he arrived in Calcutta Port (Kolkata now) to earn his living at the age of 16. He left his wealth and career to share hardship with the labor class to struggle for people’s dignity and equality. As a homeless, he slept on a desk in a newspaper office with a two-dollar wage every day. Various activities of a journalist full of zeal turned him into a communist soldier and a social-political activist with firm revolutionary ideal without dogma.

 Mr. Vu Xuan Hong, Chairman of Vietnam Union of  Friendship Organizations (right) receives Prof. Geetesh Sharma. Photo: VNA

Taking part in revolutionary activities and press provided for Geetesh Sharma a chance to meet President Ho Chi Minh in 1958 in Calcutta. He said that President Ho Chi Minh City left a deep impression on Indian people’s heart by his simple and close style of a leader. With his admiration for President Ho Chi Minh, he arrived in Vietnam and later saw it as his second home. Over past 30 years, he has contributed to India-Vietnam friendship and promoted great values of the Vietnamese people and its image in the new age that he believed it is an example for a nonreligious society without discrimination, religion, nation in the cause of liberating and building the country.

“My great love for Vietnam urged me to spend a half of my life for Vietnam. I always like to widely introduce beautiful Vietnam’s image and warm people in India and over the world”, he said.

In addition to writing numerous articles, he also spent time to collect data and write books about Vietnam. His books on Vietnam-India Friendship, including “Vietnam-India relationship: From the beginning to the 21st century” or “Traces of the Indian culture in Vietnam”, are living and attractive materials as a result of his studies and visits to Vietnam. He confided that through “Traces of the Indian culture in Vietnam”, he would like to appeal people in the two countries, especially young people to strengthen and develop more powerful and comprehensive bilateral relations between the two countries.

In 2004, he was awarded the Peace and Friendship medal by the Vietnamese Government for his great contributions. Young staff at the Vietnamese Embassy in India fondly called him an uncle while the Vietnamese Ambassador in India from 2005 to 2010, Vu Quang Diem, a special friend of Sharma, often called him a "red seed" in the India – Vietnam friendship.

He said that whenever he arrives in Vietnam, he is surprised and impressed by Vietnam’s development. He hoped that Vietnamese and Indian students and press will have more visits to each country in the coming time to exchange ideas and studies to learn more about the Vietnam-India friendship.

"I do not see myself as a guest but a member in a dear Vietnamese family. When you visit our country, we also see you as a brother in an Indian family”, he sincerely said.

Translated by Nguyen Thao