Sahebji, Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw. You, perhaps, were the last symbol and link of an India that was different, where we were not so bitterly divided, as we are today, by thuggish, illiterate, insecure politicians, and 'leaders' who are intellectual pygmies.
Every decent Indian feels a sense of loss, because in your life and persona we had a living link to what we ordinary mortals dream of becoming: handsome, dashing, gracious, charming, chivalrous, witty, caring and an immensely successful leader of men.
As a Bombayite, who has seen the Parsi community diminish, both literally in numbers and stature, your departure is one more reminder of a proud, industrious, progressive, miniscule minority of minority community, which has made such an enormous contribution, out of all proportion to their tiny numbers, to this, their wholeheartedly adopted homeland.
I am shedding tears, as I write this. It hurt, when JRD Tata passed away in a Geneva hospital. It hurt when one read his last words to the Swiss nurse who was tending to him, "La mourir, quelle douce, quelle douce". ("Death, how sweet it is, how sweet it is").
Au Revoir, Vaya Con Dios, Sam Bahadur. Oh Descendant of Xerxes and Cyrus-The Great, may the Kshatriyas of Zarathustra, and the heroes of Ramayana & Mahabharat escort you along the way, as you begin your journey to the Elysian Fields, ("the final resting place of the heroic and virtuous".)
