Kedar Sharma

Please click here to view the Live Stream of the Funeral Service for Mr. Kedar Sharma. The Live Stream will begin at 10:30am on Friday, March 21st, 2025.

Mr. Kedar Nath Sharma, born to Shri Dwarka Nath Mohley and Shrimathi Shanti Devi Mohley, was eldest of nine children; four brothers and five sisters. Born in the pre-partition era of India, Mr. Sharma grew up in the Old Delhi, Chandni Chowk area.

Mr. Sharma completed secondary education at Delhi University, majoring in economics. While his academic degree reflected the path that his family wanted him to take, Mr. Sharma had a passion for the arts. He pursued acting, briefly moving to Mumbai to try to break into Bollywood. Although that avenue did not result in movie stardom, Mr. Sharma then set his sights to radio. He became a broadcaster for All India Radio in 1955.

His broadcasting career started in New Delhi where he was a national Hindi news reader. He moved to Indore, then Bhopal, to open the All India Radio office at both locations. Before returning to Delhi, he moved to Mumbai in 1957 to help start Vividh Bharati, an All India Radio variety program, which quickly gained notoriety and where he became a household name across the vast subcontinent.

While a host on Vividh Bharati, Mr. Sharma did a 10-minute daily question and answer radio segment where he would answer questions about programming, life, and anything on the common Indian person’s mind. He was on this popular radio channel, as well as others, of All India Radio for roughly 15 years. He also published several stories in popular Hindi literary magazines, and was profiled in Illustrated India for his broadcasting work.

He emigrated from India in November 1968 to the Washington D.C. area with his wife, Mrs. Santosh Sharma, and two sons. Soon after settling in Maryland, the family welcomed their daughter.

In the United States, Mr. Sharma worked as a broadcast journalist at Voice of America, eventually becoming Managing Editor of the Hindi Service, where he interviewed many politicians, artists, actors, and singers over his multi-decade career. He had a hand in establishing Vividh Bharati Radio Program and Natya Bharati, an Indian community theater group, in the Washington D.C. area, which served the Indian community starting in early 1980s.

In addition to his many professional pursuits in India and the United States, Mr. Sharma was an original, core founding member for Mangal Mandir and Hindu Mandir. He was also a regular participant in the Gaithersburg-Rockville havan group, and subsequently founded the Bowie Vedic Havan Sabha with his wife.

Mr. Sharma’s leadership and family roles spanned continents. He was the eldest son in-law of the Jaitly family, which includes twelve siblings and scores of family members across Canada, India, the U.K., and the U.S.

Mr. Sharma is survived by his sons and daughters-in-law, Mr. Rajeev & Sangeeta Sharma and Mr. Sanjeev & Dipty Sharma, and daughter Ms. Rashmi Sharma. He is pre-deceased by his wife, Mrs. Santosh Sharma. He was “Papaji” to five grandchildren: Avnee, Anuraag, Aroon, Anuva, and Anjalee who will immensely miss him.

Funeral services are closed to the public. Please join us for the Termi (Celebration of Life) on March 29, 2025, at 3pm at the Hindu Temple of Metropolitan Washington.

We ask in lieu of flowers to please make donations to National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcasting System (PBS), or your local radio or TV news station that supports conveying unbiased and accurate news to the public, in Mr. Kedar Sharma’s name.

https://www.npr.org/donations/support

https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/support-pbs/

Please click here to view the services of Kedar Sharma.