A Centenarian General and his family of military heroes

OAge what are you but the weight of one's unlived days/ I carry you with ease/ for I have lived my each day as if it were a year/and each year as though it were an age.” The lines are apt for the couple whose video clip of dancing together went viral in October 2023. They looked and swayed like they were in their 70s when actually they were celebrating the 100th birthday of Lt. General Surindra Nath Sharma, the gentleman in the clip.

- SATISH KUMAR SHARMA

General Sharma was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers in 1945 and retired as Engineer-in-Chief of the Indian Army in 1981. He pursued his passion of para-jumping till late. He had even commanded a field company of the Parachute Brigade. On the day of his retirement, he chose to do a para-jump rather than attending his farewell function. Years ago, I was amazed to know that George Bush (Sr) had celebrated his 75th birthday by para-jumping. My credulity was, therefore, stretched to its limit on learning that General Sharma had repeated the feat when he was 86.

General Sharma’s personal achievements are enough to rank him among the legends of Indian Army but what makes his story truly great is that he belongs to perhaps the most illustrious military family of India, whose members have served the nation beginning from World War I until the Kargil War, and which has given India its first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, a Chief of Army Medical Corps, an Engineer-in-chief of Indian Army, a Chief of Army Staff and one of the early lady doctors to be commissioned in the army as a doctor-officer.

It all began when a young man, Amar Nath Sharma on graduating as a doctor from King Edward Memorial Medical College, Lahore in 1915 sized the career opportunity offered by World War I and joined military. In due course, he reached the top and retired as Major General and chief of the Indian Army Medical Corps.