ZAGNY is proud to announce that Ervad Brigadier Behram Panthaki and Zenobia Panthaki will be our Guest Speakers at the Parsi New Year 2015 Function.

Behram and Zenobia live in the Washington D.C. area where Behram also presides as the Head Mobed at the Kamran Dar-E Mehr, the home of ZAMWI and is the seniormost mobed in the D.C Area.

Behram and Zenobia would give a talk followed by a Q and A around the book they co-authored titled Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: The Man and His Times”.

After the talk, you will have the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of the book.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: The Man and His Times

By Brig Behram M Panthaki (Retd) and Zenobia Panthaki

ISBN #: 978-93-83098-30-9 – Publication of 2014

The book is dedicated to men in uniform who laid down their lives defending our country and to their widows whose sacrifice is in equal measure. A major portion of the royalty will be donated to the War Wounded Foundation of India and the War Widows Welfare Assn. of India.

As a 2-star general he had a run-in with Defence Minister Krishna Menon when he refused to snitch on then Army Chief, Gen KS Thimayya, and told Menon to mend his ways. This almost brought his career to a grinding halt, but for Sam, upholding values trumped personal gain.  As a 3-star general he stopped the young Indira Gandhi who had accompanied her father, Prime Minister Nehru, from entering the Ops Room of his Corps HQ in NEFA, as she lacked security clearance. As an Army Commander, on tours, he carried the latest music LPs, playboy magazines and calendars as gifts for officers serving in high altitude areas, paying for these on his personal tab. In April 1971, as Chief of Army Staff, he stood up to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and offered to put in his papers rather than compromise the safety and security of his men through an untimely, unplanned war. In December that year, under his command, within two weeks, the Indian army liberated East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh forever changed the map of the subcontinent and the geo-politics of the region. The government honoured him by promoting him to Field Marshal, a first for the Indian Army. At the height of the war, rumours ran amuck that he’d been spied at The Tabela, a popular discotheque in Delhi. True or false, we’ll never know, for that is the enigma that still surrounds Sam Manekshaw.

As much as men in uniform loved Sam, the bureaucrats dreaded him. The welfare of his troops, his officers and their families came first, always and every time. Intolerant of sycophancy and indiscipline, Sam ruled with an iron rod but tempered his decisions with compassion and humour. Dressing down a young officer whose dalliance with a tribal girl had resulted in a military standoff, Sam admonished, “Boy, you had my entire Eastern Army at ‘stand-to’. I hope she was worth it!” On a visit to a formation, explaining the absence of his wife he said she never traveled on Saturdays as she considered them inauspicious days, “you see, that was the day on which she married me!”

Many such anecdotes about Sam Manekshaw can be found in a coffee table book that Zenobia and I have written on the Field Marshal. I served on the General’s staff from 1965-73 and was a witness to events and decisions that impacted the geo-politics of the Indian sub-continent. We shared closeness to Sam that gave us a unique insight into his ideals, his military acumen, his mannerisms and his unique sense of humour. With 200 photographs, citations, letters from eminent personalities and Heads of State, the book has a lot to offer. It transports one to a time of gracious living and high thinking.

The Chief of the Indian Army launched the book on April 3, 2014, to celebrate Sam’s birth centenary. A second release was held on April 5 by the Delhi Parsi Anjuman and a third, in Mumbai at the Trident Hotel where former Chief Justice of India, Sam Bharucha was the chief guest and recommended the book as a ‘must read’, for Manekshaw’s life symbolises the highest principals of public life and the spirit of nationalism.

The book has received over 60 positive reviews. Three excerpts follow:

Mr. Fali Nariman, President Bar Association of India and Former Additional Solicitor Gen of India: “From beginning to end this delightful narrative simply races along, providing an intimate, witty and scintillating story of a superhero….Sam’s humanism, his notations on official files, his colourful language and his doodles, which occasionally set off tidal waves of mirth through Army Headquarters, make this book simply ‘un-put-down-able’!

Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, Former Vice Chief of Army Staff: “An excellent book that is a labour of love and a tribute to the great Sam Bahadur… A delightful tale woven with great dexterity and garnished with a profusion of photographs that brings out the well-rounded personality of a proud soldier, a military leader par excellence and a great human being. This gem of a book is a must for your coffee table.”

Lalit Mansingh, Former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to the United States: “While chronicling his career, (the authors) present him … as a family man, a comrade-in-arms, a strategist and a charismatic leader of the troops. It is a story narrated with affection and admiration but never with hyperbole.”

The book is price at US$ 45. The authors will be offering it at a discounted price of $40 during this promotion and will be pleased to autograph copies. The royalty will go to the War Wounded Foundation and the War Widows’ Associations of India.

 

About Ervad Brigadier Behram Panthaki Brigadier Behram Panthaki was born in India in 1942. A graduate from Pune University he was ordained a navar and later as a maratab from the M. F. Cama Athornan Institute, Mumbai. Commissioned in 1964, Brigadier Panthaki served with the 2nd battalion of the 8th Gorkha Rifles. He was deployed on the Indo-China and Indo-Pakistan borders, fought insurgency in the eastern states and in the Punjab, had four posting in Jammu & Kashmir along the line of control, including one at the Division HQ in Ladakh that controls operations on the Siachen Glacier. He commanded a Brigade in Delhi which is responsible for the security of the National Capital Region (NCR) and protection of VIPs. Brigadier Panthaki served on the faculty of two premier military establishments, the War College, Mhow, and the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Among several appointments during his career, the one he covets most is ADC (Aide-de-Camp) to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Chief of the Army Staff. In 1994, after 30 years of service, having earned 12 military honors, he opted for early retirement to join his family in USA. In India, Behram had occasionally performed ceremonies for friends and family. On migrating to the US he was presented with an opportunity to serve the Zoroastrian community of Washington metropolitan area. Behram is the only priest who serves the area from Bel Air, Maryland in the north to Richmond, Virginia in the south. He has worked towards making the Zoroastrian faith better understood in the Washington area by speaking at Universities in the tri-state area, at churches and schools. He is also the Zoroastrian faith leader of the Washington Chapter of the Inter Faith Conference. Until recently, Brigadier Panthaki was the Director of Human Resources at The Kingsbury Center, a non- profit organization that provides special education to differently abled individuals.

About Zenobia Panthaki Zenobia Panthaki is an alumnus of Miranda House, University of Delhi. She began her career with IBM in New Delhi but on marrying Capt Behram Panthaki, ADC to the Army Chief, and after the birth of their first child, she took a conscious decision to become a full-time ‘home maker’. Zenobia accompanied her husband on his frequent posting to many small cantonment townships all over India and became involved with the running welfare programs for soldiers’ wives and children. When her husband rose to positions of command, she expanded the program to include ‘nari shikshah’, women’s education. When Behram was posted in North Bengal, in the District Headquarter town of Cooch Behar, she ran the local Army School. This was the only English medium school that was allowed to function in the predominantly naxalite (communist) corridor of N. Bengal. In spite of constant threats to her life and against all odds she continued to expand and improve the school and finally succeeded in getting it recognized by the Central Board of Secondary Education. In 1984 when her husband was posted to Army HQ, New Delhi, Zenobia resumed her career and joined the World Bank. In 1994 she transferred to the Bank’s HQs in Washington and worked there until her retirement in 2012. She now consults for the World Bank.