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Even while battling for life, he was a companion to patients

Wellington: “My father was lucky to have had a wonderful life especially his retired life and last days in Coonoor, where he was given good medical care at the Military Hospital,” said Maja Dharuwala, daughter of Field Marshal Manekshaw.

Emotional, yet composed, she spoke a few words following persistent requests from the media: “My father liked and decided to settle down in Coonoor because my mother loved the place so much.”

Said his other daughter, Shelly Batliwala: “The army was his life. Yet, his two daughters and three grandchildren were more than life for Sam Manekshaw.”

“It was a great honour to treat a great hero who was brilliant, witty, humorous, charming despite his age and health,” pulmonologist BNBM Prasad, head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Army Hospital, New Delhi, told journalists at the Madras Regimental Centre in Wellington.

Field Marshal Manekshaw, who had been in and out of the Military Hospital for the last two years, was sinking in the last four days and Army Hospital expert doctors were rushed there.

Describing the last days and last moments of Field Marshal Manekshaw, Dr. Prasad said, “He found a strange will power even when he was critically ill. Manekshaw largely and greatly remained composed.”

Dr. Prasad said: “He had a peaceful death with both daughters holding his hand at the bedside.” A warrior who fought battles, Field Marshal Mankeshaw, even while battling for his life, “always proved to be a companion to the other ailing patients at the hospital.”

Mann Bahadhur Thappa, a close aide for more than a decade, said: “Saab just looked into my eyes when I visited him at the Military Hospital once during his last four days.”

Mann Bahadhur, trying to come to grips with the reality of the loss, said: “I knew that Saab was trying to tell me something but I understood that he was not able to speak, hence his attempt to convey something through the eyes.”

The former Army Chief always had a big heart for personnel from the Gurkha Regiment and all his personal aides were from the Gurkha community. Even the pall-bearers, who carried his coffin to the gun carriage at the Madras Regimental Centre quadrangle for funeral, were from the Gurkha Regiment. Mann Bahadhur was a cook, gardener, housekeeper, driver and friend for the Field Marshal at his Upper Coonoor residence during the last days.

Field Marshal Manekshaw, who moved into Bandishola near Coonoor shortly after the 1971 India-Pakistan war, was a familiar sight in the town, particularly the market where he used to go for supplies, accompanied by a Gurkha helper.

Going round the market, he would not hesitate to pull up people who were not conscious of their civic duties. “He once reprimanded a police officer who was smoking in public while on duty,” recalled Coonoor Merchants Association secretary R. Parameswaran.

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