Farewell Sam Bahadur (April 1914 - June 2008)

yesterday was yet another Friday for the most of this world while some carried a heavy heart as Field Marshal Manekshaw slipped further from a state of come to a state of NO return.

Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, born April 03, 1914 was commissioned officer from the first batch of IMA at the age of 19.
With uncountable accolades attached with his name the most important one still remains the 1971 India-Pakistan war of which he was the architect and then fathered Bangladesh.
Being a soldier general, he was often dragged in controversies with the politicians on whose fancies he did not run the Army.
Mrs. Indira Gandhi's efforts to tame Sam Bahadur with the stick did not work as he knew the state of his job better than her.
In 1971 when over 90,000 people tried crossing into the Indian territory following a genocide in East Pakistan, the PMO was all set to call it War when Sam kept his foot down stating that the time was not good enough. He planned for another 7 months before firing the first shot in December and forming Bangladesh in less than a month. Pakistanis ate dirt here after falling flat on their faces.

Some controversies attached to his name:
1. Accused indirectly by Gohar Ayub Khan for selling the plans of the 1965 war to Pakistan.
2. Refusal to address Mrs. Gandhi as 'Madam' because this addressal according to him was used for ladies from a "different kind of a house".
3. Erected signboards for his troops along the frontier during the 1971 war "your hands stay in your pockets. Indian chics are prettier."

No matter the length of the list of controversies against his name, this country owes to Sam Manekshaw for what India is today.

I salute the soldier in Sam.


PS: India I feel owes a lot to the Parsis for their contribution of making the face of this country visible with naked-eye on the globe.