INDORE: A 94-year-old
World War-II veteran
, who was on the frontlines in three wars, took the Covid vaccine in
Indore
on Tuesday as a shield against a never-before-seen enemy.
The fight against Coronavirus is no less than a world war, said Subedar Ramlal Sabharwal. “I haven’t seen anything like this in my life. I’d only heard of similar catastrophes — the plague and the great Bengal famine,” the combat vet told TOI after taking his first vaccine dose.
It reminds him of the devastating earthquake that hit his hometown of Quetta, now in Pakistan, in 1935. “Around 80% of the population in Quetta, including my mother, died,” he said.
The soldier was full of josh when he was wheeled out of a private hospital in Indore on Tuesday morning after taking his first shot.
Subedar Sabharwal retired from the Army in 1972 after being in uniform for 28 years. He fought against the Japanese on the grueling Burma front, and then in the 1962 India-China and 1965 India-Pakistan wars.
The soldier keenly follows news, keeps himself updated on Covid-19, and knows that you need all the protection you can get when stepping into a battleground. During the early days of the pandemic, we fought with whatever we had, just like he and his comrades at arms guarded India’s frontiers at Nathu La in 1967 with limited resources.
But now, there is the vaccine, he points out. “There is no doubt. Everybody should go for it (vaccine) because it is for our own good,” he said, adding that discipline, social distancing and masks are the only way to prevent spread of Covid-19.”
“I can feel the plight of people battling Covid-19 as I can equate it to the Quetta quake of 1935,” he said. At 17, he joined the Army and was sent to fight the Japanese on the Burma front.
And then Partition struck. “I returned to India only in 1948 to find my native place in Jhelum district in a new country — Pakistan,” he said. “I am thankful to god that I wasn’t retired from the forces because I had lost my property, house and friends in Partition.”
He was attached to the Gorkha Regiment and immediately headed with his unit to deal with accession of Hyderabad.
Now, he lives in a one-storied home in Scheme 54 with three generations of his family, Tuesday was the first time he ventured out in a year. “All my family members have remained very alert to the Covid threat. We have kept ourselves updated about it. Luckily, none of us got infected,” he said.
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