The 106th birth anniversary of one of our finest soldiers, Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw. There are many legends and stories about him, but this particular one is my favourite. (1/4)

In 1947 In 1947, Manekshaw owned a red motorcycle. Yahya Khan, a fellow officer offered Manekshaw a 1,000 rupees for his motorcycle. Sam Manekshaw, agreed. But before Khan could pay, he moved to a unit in the Pakistan army after partition. (2/4)

A little over two decades later Yahya was the President of Pakistan and Manekshaw was Chief of the Indian Army Staff. In the 1971 war, the Indian army routed the Pakistan forces in the East and liberated Bangladesh. And 90,000 Pakistan troops surrendered in Dacca. (3/4)

At the end of it all, Manekshaw said "Yahya never paid me the 1,000 rupees for my motorbike, but now he has paid with half his country."
Manekshaw or 'Sam Bahadur' as his beloved Gurkha units would call him, was one of our greats.