Y. K. Sohoni

Y. K. Sohoni (1911–2003) was a teacher and professor of French for over fifty years. He was based in Pune and Bombay for most of his life, till he migrated to the United States of America in 1984. In 1953, he started the Indian Association of Teachers of French. He was instrumental in setting up several departments and institutes for the teaching and learning of French in India, and was the first Head of the Department of Modern European Languages at the University of Pune, Among other awards, in 1975 he was awarded the Chevalier dans l'Ordre Palmes Académiques by the Government of France "pour services rendus a la culture française." It was in the same year that he established the Department of French in CIEFL, Hyderabad. From 1984, he lived in Great Falls, Virginia till his death in 2003.

Education and teaching career
Yeshwant Kashinath Sohoni was born in a Chitpavan Brahmin family in Pune, and went to the M.E. Society's Boys' School (Perugate Bhave school) in Pune. He attended S.P. College (then under the University of Bombay), from where he received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Physics (18 August 1936), and also a Bachelor of Arts (15 February 1938). During this period around 1936-37, he taught French at the Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya High School, Pune, and at the M.E. Society's High School (now called the Vimalabai Garware High School) at Deccan Gymkhana, Pune. Y.K. Sohoni then left for Paris, where he was registered at the Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris in 1938-39, and received a Diplôme d'études de civilisation française in 1939. After his return to India, he taught French at the Bombay Scottish Orphanage Society's High School at Mahim, Bombay, from 1940-44. He left Bombay to teach French at Fergusson College, Pune, from 1944 to 1958, where he was the Head of the Department. During this period, he also taught evening classes at the Ranade Institute. He was the promoter and first Secretary of the Indian Association of Teachers of French. In 1958, he was appointed as a lecturer in French at the University of Pune (then known as the University of Poona), and within a few years was promoted as a reader, then professor, and finally the Head of the Department of Modern European Languages. He retired from the University of Pune in 1973. He established the Department of French in CIEFL, Hyderabad in 1975. In recognition of his services to French culture, the Government of France awarded him with the title of Chevalier dans l'Ordre Palmes Académiques. Till 1976, he was the Correspondent for India for Le Français dans le Monde and of the Federation Internationale des Etudes Français.

Personal life
Prof. Y.K. Sohoni had two brothers, Krishna and Vijay, and two sisters, Lila and Kamala. He was married to Sushila Sohoni (née Bapat) in 1937 till her death in 2000. He is survived by three children, Shrikant Sohoni (retd. Reader, EMRC Pune), married to Shobhana Sohoni née Joshi (retd. Professor of Biochemistry, B.J. Medical College), Mangala Joshi (married to Brig. S.P. Joshi) and Aparna Karmarkar (married to the late Subhash Karmarkar who worked at the U.S. Naval Weapons Center in Bethesda), and five grandchildren. His grandson, Pushkar Sohoni, teaches at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.