Military Digest: The young-at-100 Lt Gen Surendra Nath ‘Tindi’ Sharma

He marked his 100th birthday on October 3 by paying homage at the National War Memorial and saluting the bust of his elder brother, Major Somnath Sharma, India’s first Param Vir Chakra awardee in 1947 after the Battle of Budgam in Kashmir.

Incidentally, the medal was designed by Lt Gen Sharma’s mother-in-law, Savitri Khanolkar. Lt Gen Sharma is younger than Major Sharma by less than a year.

The Sharma siblings. Major Somnath Sharma in front with the parents while Surendra Nath (in uniform) and Vishwa Nath stand behind with sister Kamla. (Pic courtesy: Sharma family.)

Born in a family with strong military connections, his father Maj Gen Amarnath Sharma was an Army doctor and of his five children, four joined the Army.

Lt Gen Sharma was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers and retired as Engineer-in-Chief in 1981. His elder brother, Maj Somnath Sharma, was commissioned in the Kumaon Regiment.

A third brother, General Vishwa Nath Sharma, was commissioned in the armoured corps and rose to become the Chief of the Army Staff in 1988. One of their sisters, Major Kamla Tewari, also joined the Army Medical Corps. Their second sister Manorama Sharma was an educationist and social worker.

Incidentally, all three brothers studied in Sherwood College, Nainital, and Lt Gen Sharma is also the founder president of Old Sherwoodians Society.

Lt Gen Sharma holds the rare distinction of having served in all three Groups of the Corps of Engineers — the Madras, Bengal, and Bombay Sappers. He was commissioned in 1944 in Madras Sappers and then served with Pathans as a Bengal Sapper in 1945-46.

After Partition in 1947, he was posted to 20 Field Company of Bombay Sappers. A keen paratrooper since before partition he commanded the Parachute Brigade’s field company.

Lt Gen Sharma served as Adjutant of the training battalion of Bombay Sappers in 1948 for three months before being posted as a Group Task Officer (GTO) in a services selection board.

He was again posted as Adjutant of the training battalion of Bombay Sappers in 1950 when the legendary Lt Gen P S Bhagat, Victoria Cross, was the Commandant of the Centre in the rank of Colonel.

Many years later, as the Colonel Commandant of Bombay Sappers Lt Gen Sharma resisted attempts to hand over the iconic officers’ mess property of the Bombay Sappers Centre and Group to the Military Engineers Service (MES).

The mess was built with contributions from Bombay Sappers officers and they owned the property jointly through the years. Amidst much opposition in the Army Headquarters, he succeeded and it is the only regiment in the country which still owns its mess.

Not many are aware that Lt Gen Sharma and his team of Paratrooper Sappers constructed the runway in Nepal’s Kathmandu in the early 1950s. That episode in his career is a story in itself but it suffices to say the task was done in eight weeks with the help of steam-powered road rollers that ran on coal.

Lt Gen Sharma has also been a keen paratrooper for most of his military service as well as after retirement. His last jump was at the age of 86.

In fact, such was his passion for para trooping that he spent the last two days of his service doing parachute jumps in Agra with the Para Field Company. On his last day in service on October 31, 1981, as the Engineer-in-Chief, he was jumping out of the aircraft in Agra instead of attending his farewell ceremonies in New Delhi.

Here is wishing this ‘young-at-100’ Lt General a continued healthy and fulfilling life.