Some interesting facts about Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw

Sam Bahadur was a great Indian military commander, and people learned about him when his biopic film Sam Bahadur was released. Many facts and his life story were unknown about this unsung hero. 

Here are some facts about Sam Bahadur:

He was Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw known as Sam Bahadur. He was the eighth Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army and also the first Indian Army Officer who was promoted to five-star Rank of Field Marshal. 

For forty years he was in the Army and during this period he participated in five wars. He was born on April 3, 1914. Very few people know that He was born to Parsi parents in Amritsar. From the beginning, Sam Bahadur desired to join the Army but his father was not ready. He asked his father to send him to London to become a gynaecologist. Later he took the Indian Military Academy entrance examination and got selected there. 

Prior to the Indian-Pakistan War, when Indira Gandhi asked Sam Bahadur about whether Indian Army is ready for that, he responded in a sweet manner stating “I am ready sweetie”. He shared a good relation with her as there was a Parisian connection with her husband Feroze Gandhi who was from Parsi. 

Sam also came across many death situations. At a young age, he became Captain and was posted in Burma. While fighting a war with the Japanese in the year 1942, he was shot with nine bullets in the body. While he was struggling for his life, valiant Sikh Sepoy Sher Singh rescued and saved him. Some of the famous quotes said by him are - “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gorkha”. Also when he was asked if he had chosen Pakistan during partition, then “Pakistan would have won all the wars”