Himachal Som (died 26 November 2013) was an Indian diplomat. He was an

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the ...

officer of 1970 Cadre and retired as the Indian Ambassador to Italy and the Permanent Representative to various United Nations bodies in Europe.

Life

Som was born in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

. He went to St. Patrick's School, Asansol, Asansol and did his Bachelor's from

Presidency College, Kolkata Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...

. Som was married to

Reba Som Dr. Reba Som (born, Darjeeling, West Bengal) is an academic, historian, writer and classical singer from India. She was the director of Indian Council for Cultural Relations' Rabindranath Tagore Centre in Kolkata from 2008-2013. Reba Som is also ...

, an academic, historian, writer and classical singer from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. She is the director of

Indian Council for Cultural Relations The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India, involved in India's global cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their people. It was founded on 9 Apri ...

, Rabindranath Tagore Centre in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. She is also a trained singer of

Rabindrasangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Li ...

. He had two sons,

Vishnu Som Vishnu Som (born July 1974 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is an Indian news anchor and journalist. He is the Executive Editor and Principal Anchor with New Delhi Television (NDTV), India's first 24-hour news network. Som reported extensively on war, envi ...

, a television journalist and news anchor for NDTV, and Abhishek Som, an investment banker. He loved cooking and said that it is a great diplomatic tool.Outlook, India
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References

Writers from West Bengal Ambassadors of India to Italy 2013 deaths {{India-diplomat-stub