India’s first ever Field Marshal, Sam Manekshaw was a distinguished military man with a glorious career spanning over four decades. The very name Sam Manekshaw is enough to inspire respect and admiration in the minds of Indians even today. Given his achievements in the army and his prowess on the war front, it seems easy to assume that the man was always destined for a military career. But the weird fact is that it was just a quirk of fate that he joined the army! A brilliant student at school, the boy set his aspirations on becoming a doctor. He asked his father to send him to England to study medicine which the older man refused. In an act of rebellion, the young Sam decided to sit for enrollment at the Indian Military Academy. He got selected and thus embarked on what was to become his rightful fate. His long and productive career started during the British era and continued for 40 years over which he witnessed several major wars like the World War II and the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. He was a very bold man not at all shy about making politically incorrect statements.