Memories of Manekshaw

To commemorate Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw’s birth centenary on April 3, 2014, a life sized granite statue was unveiled at the entrance of Manekshaw Bridge on the Ooty-Coonoor Road in the Nilgiris, where the soldier lived out his last years. Funded by the Wellington Cantonment Board, the statue was unveiled by Lt Gen S. K. Gadeok, commandant of the Defence Services Staff College. This was followed by a war memorial service at the Parsi cemetery in Ooty where he had been interred. Granddaughter Brandy Batliwala was present on the occasion, mentioned The Times of India’s Coimbatore edition on the following day. Manekshaw had breathed his last in the military hospital in Wellington on June 27, 2009.

On April 3, 2014, Rusi Sorabji, now based in California, who had been invited to Manekshaw’s 89th birthday party, wrote to Parsiana: "I last met Aapro Sam on April 3, 2003, at Delhi’s Air Force Auditorium, at the premiere screening of In War and Peace, the first ever film to document the brilliant life, times and sense of humor of Sam H. F. J. Manekshaw. The event was organized by The PARZOR Foundation to coincide with his 89th birthday.
"As a bouquet of 90 roses was presented, the Army’s massed band struck up Happy Birthday and the entire audience rose to join in. The Field Marshal was asked to cut the huge cake with a silver kukri, the Gorkha knife. Delicious and mouth watering Parsi snacks were served and Sam with a red tika or teelo on his forehead then met the public. My sister and I were fortunate to have chatted with him for several minutes. He was thrilled to know we had an uncle who was a Brigadier in the 10th Gorkha Rifles, that I went to the same school his sisters had and that his cousin Soli Manekshaw was my mentor and got me started in my career with a British pharmaceutical company way back in 1951.” Sorabji recalls that someone jokingly told Sam that a 100-rose bouquet was ordered for a decade later, but that was not to be.
In a tribute to the elderly soldier in the Afternoon Despatch and Courier (ADC) dated April 3, 2014, it was mentioned that Sam had often cheated death both on the battlefield and off it, living to be a nonagenarian. Gen B. N. B.M. Prasad, his pulmonary specialist recalled: "What impressed me most on my first personal meeting with him was his magnetic charm. He was a star attraction as he slowly walked in the corridors of the hospital. People in the vicinity used to look at him with bated breath and admire silently despite his age and ill health.” The Field Marshal once asked him, "Doctor, why can’t you have a scotch in my name?” since he himself was too unwell to do so. A week after Manekshaw passed away, his grandson dropped in at the doctor’s office to deliver a bottle of scotch under instructions from his grandfather. The note accompanying it read: "Col Prasad, FM sent his apologies that he could not drink this with you…”
Rediff.com re-posted some of the articles they had carried over the years, and in one of them Nitin Gokhale, security and strategic affairs editor with NDTV news channel, who lectures annually at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington recalled a chance encounter with Kennedy, the chauffeur who had worked with Manekshaw for 22 years. The piece was forwarded to Parsiana by Uday Sinari who, during his working life as personal assistant to well known architect Dady Banaji, would read Parsiana and developed an abiding interest in the community. According to the report, Gokhale asked the driver whether he had any memories of Manekshaw to share, and was rewarded with a number of anecdotes.
Manekshaw was very particular that the staff car be used "only for official purposes. Very often Madam (wife, Silloo) would drive him to the market in her Maruti 800. He would purchase the essentials from the market himself — vegetables, meat — he loved doing that,” Kennedy revealed. "He bought the plot of land in 1960 when he was commandant of the Staff College, but even as a major general, he did not have enough money. He once told me, ‘Kennedy, I had to take out money from my provident fund to buy this land.’ The field marshal never said it openly, but Madam and other family members often made it clear that they were never happy with the way the government treated him after retirement. They gave him the baton, five stars and nothing else… Not even a dedicated car,” Kennedy said indignantly.
As father and husband, Manekshaw scored highly. Kennedy told Gokhale, "Oh for him, Madam’s word was final. The field marshal was a loving father and grandfather. One of his grandsons looked exactly like him. Long nose, tall and fair. I never saw him (Manekshaw) scold anyone. And he was always kind to people like us. When Madam passed away, he was a broken man. We knew he wouldn’t last long without his greatest strength.” Extremely angry at how his hero was treated in death by the government, Kennedy said: "No chief came for his burial. Defence Minister Antony sent his junior minister. Is this the way we treat our heroes?”